Rethinking radical politics in the context of assisted reproductive technology

Bioethics

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 20-27

  Parks, Jennifer ^a  

^a LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

Assisted reproductive technology; Dialectic; Embryo cryopreservation; Feminist bioethics; In vitro fertilization; Radical politics

Indexed keywords

CONFLICT; CULTURAL FACTOR; ETHICS; FAMILY SIZE; FEMINISM; FREEDOM; HUMAN; IDEOLOGY; INFERTILITY THERAPY; LEGAL ASPECT; POLITICS; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS; REVIEW; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; UNITED STATES; WOMEN'S RIGHTS;

COMMUNISM; CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS; DISSENT AND DISPUTES; FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS; FEMINISM; FREEDOM; HUMANS; POLITICS; PREJUDICE; REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS; REPRODUCTIVE TECHNIQUES, ASSISTED; SOCIAL VALUES; UNITED STATES; WOMEN'S RIGHTS;

EID: 57649193248     PISSN: 02699702     EISSN: 14678519     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00675.x     Document Type: Review

References (45)

1. S. Firestone. 1970. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York, NY: Morrow: 11.
2. J. Raymond. 1994. Women as Wombs: Reproductive Technologies and the Battle Over Women's Freedom. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press;
3. G. Corea. 1986. The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artifical Wombs. New York, NY: HarperTrade.
4. G. Corea. 1986. The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artifical Wombs, Ibid: 208.
5. For a recent account of the mutually constitutive relationship between maternal bodies and the medical care they have received, see R. Kukla. 2005. Mass Hysteria: Medicine, Culture, and Mothers' Bodies. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
6. I define a 'radical' feminist approach as one that addresses the social dominance of women by men, taking gender oppression as the most fundamental source of oppression. This approach sees patriarchy as the oldest and most universal form of domination. It is the aim of radical feminists to challenge and overthrow patriarchy by calling for a profound restructuring of society. A radical feminist approach to ART considers how our reproductive practices serve patriarchal ends by adhering to and strengthening biological and gender roles; it considers ways to alter those practices and structures radically. By contrast, liberal feminist approaches to ART prioritize concerns for individual rights and liberties, taking legal systems to be the cause of women's oppression. Feminists who address ART from a liberal perspective tend to focus on an individual woman's right to reproduce, and on ensuring that the legal system protects women's reproductive freedom and privacy.
7. As excellent examples of these contemporary feminist scholars, see C. Daniels. 1993. At Women's Expense: State Power and the Politics of Fetal Rights. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press;
8. C. McLeod. 2007. For Dignity or Money: Feminists on the Commodification of Women's Reproductive Labour. In The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics. B. Steinbock, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 258-281;
9. and R. Rapp. 2000. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America. New York: Routledge.
10. For example, Raymond and Corea could not have predicted that, within approximately 25 years of their writings, we would witness the uncoupling of gender and childbearing. The media spotlight is currently focusing on Thomas Beatie, a transgender man from Oregon who is pregnant with his own biological child. His wife was unable to conceive due to a hysterectomy; upon birthing his child, Beatie will be the child's father and his wife will be its mother. See 'Labor of Love' available at http://www.advocate.com/ exclusive_detail_ektid52947.asp [Accessed 2 April 2008].
11. Elizabeth Anderson. Is Women's Labor a Commodity? Philos Public Aff 1990 19 : 71 92
12. Radin. Market-Inalienability. Harv Law Rev 1980 100 : 1849.
13. Kelly Oliver. 1992. Marxism and Surrogacy. In Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, H.B. Holmes & L. Purdy, eds. Indianopolis: Indiana University Press: 270-273.
14. Firestone, Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, op. cit. note 1, p. 1.
15. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 205.
16. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 206.
17. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 206.
18. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 199. Here again, we see the need to be sensitive to historical and cultural contexts, given the more recent reclamation of pregnancy as beautiful, and pregnant women as desirable.
19. Firestone is one of the only feminists who supports ART from a radical perspective. Almost without exception, other feminist (and non-feminist) accounts that support ART tend to examine it from a liberal perspective.
20. Corea, Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, op cit. note 2, p. 2.
21. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 2.
22. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Ibid: 3.
23. Raymond, Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, op. cit. note 2, p. 85.
24. V. Hartouni. 1997. Cultural Conceptions: On reproductive technologies and the remaking of life. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
25. Hartouni addresses the cultural construction of 'monstrous mothers'; this strong disapprobation has been widely expressed in print as follows: The Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. 1993. Proceed with Care: Final Report of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Government Publishing for the Commission on New Reproductive Technologies: 1;
26. Too Old to Have a Baby? Lancet 1993 341 : 344 345.
27. J. Parks. 1999. On The Use of IVF by Postmenopausal Women. Hypatia 1999 14 : 77 96.
28. One might consider the practice of 'othermothering' that is engaged in by women in the African American community. See P.H. Collins. 1991. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. Collins points out that African American women put less emphasis on genetic ties to their offspring, sometimes opting instead to 'mother' other women's children, putting their investment into their communities rather than concerning themselves only with their own genetic offspring.
29. Also see H.R. Clinton. 1996. It Takes A Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. New York: Simon &Schuster. Clinton also challenges us to consider more communal approaches to rearing children.
30. J.M. Appel. May Doctors Refuse Infertility Treatments to Gay Patients? Hastings Cent Rep 2006 36 : 20 21.
31. American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). 2003. California Court of Appeal Affirms 'Split' Parentage in Embryo Mix-Up Case. Birmingham, AL. Available at: http://www.asrm.org/Media/LegallySpeaking/vol37no3.html [Accessed 20 November 2007].
32. I specifically mention the United States because it has experienced more deep-seated problems in maintaining the separation of church and state, as conservative Christians have heavily lobbied the government to implement strict anti-abortion laws. While in many ways the US and Canada are culturally similar, the political landscapes differ in significant ways - for example, the US stands apart from Canada in placing a moratorium on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and an increasingly conservative Supreme Court puts women's abortion rights at serious risk.
33. Additionally, the development of ultrasound imaging technologies has created fetuses anew as visible subjects with full and equal human rights. As Cynthia Daniels puts it, '. the fetus is depicted as an independent being with needs, interests, and rights separate from and often opposed to the pregnant woman's'. Daniels, California Court of Appeal Affirms 'Split' Parentage in Embryo Mix-Up Case, op cit. note 6, p. 3.
34. These threats to women's reproductive freedom are not limited to the United States, of course. In a move to clamp down on the use of ART, the Italian Senate approved a law that bans many reproductive technologies and that seriously limits access to and uses of the remaining available technologies. According to the new law, individuals will no longer have access to donor sperm, eggs, or contract motherhood; and gay couples and single women are categorically denied access to all ART. Only infertile heterosexual couples can apply for access to IVF treatment, and only to government approved centers. All couples must prove that they are married or in a stable relationship. Doctors may create ex utero up to three embryos for each IVF attempt, all of which must be returned for implantation; they cannot be frozen or used for research. In addition, the freezing of any embryo or sperm is outlawed, as is screening for fetal abnormalities, even in individuals suffering from genetic disorders.
35. While this is not intended to be a wholesale endorsement of ART for women, one needs to recognize that the technologies are not going to go away. If they are going to persist we should ensure that women who are marginalized by their skin color, sexuality, ability status, marital status, and age are not denied access to the technology. In the absence of strong arguments concerning why these groups should not be given the opportunity to parent (and to date I have not seen any), these women should have equal access to the good of having a child of their own. I am not arguing for a rise in the use of ART, but in the proportional use by marginalized groups, who may use the technology to develop non-traditional, and flourishing, families.
36. E. Parens A. Asch. Special Supplement: The Disability Rights Critique of Prenatal Genetic Testing: Reflections and Recommendations. Hastings Cent Rep 1999 29 : S1 S22.
37. L.J. Moore. 2007. Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid. New York: New York University Press.
38. We need to give some thought to how our reproductive practices will affect the children born of them. Feminists have taken the lead in raising concerns about the implications of ART on the offspring that result, especially where technology is increasingly being used to create 'designer' babies, and where some adults who were born of ART claim that a connection to their genetic donors is meaningful and important to them.
39. L. Mundy. Souls on Ice: America's Human Embryo Glut and the Unbearable Lightness of Almost Being Mother Jones 2006 27 August, 39 45.
40. This is why IVF is associated with an alarming increase in multiple births, since multiple embryos will often implant and the woman is then left with the decision either to terminate some of the embryos selectively or to take a risk and carry them all to term. In order to reduce the likelihood of multiple births, most European countries put a limit of two to three embryos that can be returned for implantation.
41. L. Mundy, Mother Jones, op cit. note 32, p. 41.
42. Mother Jones, Ibid: 43.
43. Hartouni, Mother Jones, op. cit. note 20, pp. 20-21.
44. C. Daniels, Mother Jones, op. cit. note 6, p. 133.
45. Mother Jones, Ibid: 132.