Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Cultural Analysis of Assisted Reproduction Practices in Argentina

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Assisted reproduction practices- laboratory and clinical techniques that enable genetic human reproduction- are becoming increasingly prominent in Latin America as viable and preferred options for creating a "family of one's own." Significantly, Latin America is not the only "Third World" region where the research and development of reproductive technologies are proliferating. Yet biotechnologies are often assumed to be culturally neutral, bringing a standard form of scientific modernity to any setting in which they appear. This dissertation project, conducted by a student of cultural anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will focus on the community of reproductive medicine specialists in Buenos Aires so to examine the social processes and motivations guiding the acceptance and production of assisted reproduction practices in Argentina. Through ethnographic methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and archival research, this project will investigate the local specificities of assisted reproduction: how do these procedures engage and respond to particular ideas about science, modernity and religion, values of genetic inheritance and parenthood, and economic and political pressures. Because reproductive medicine is a fast-growing field with far-reaching social and ethical consequences, it is important to understand the processes by which reproductive technologies are enacted locally according to social, political, and economic circumstances. This project will contribute a culturally-nuanced analysis that will inform both academic and policy discussions on the ethical, legal and social implications of assisted reproduction.