Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Third Phase

Following the birth of the first "test-tube baby" in 1978, Assisted Reproductive Technologies became available to a small number of people in high-income countries able to afford the cost of private treatment, a period seen as the "First Phase" of ARTs. In the "Second Phase," these treatments became increasingly available to cosmopolitan global elites. Today, this picture is changing - albeit slowly and unevenly - as ARTs are becoming more widely available. While, for many, accessing infertility treatments remains a dream, these are beginning to be viewed as a standard part of reproductive healthcare and family planning. This volume highlights this "Third Phase" - the opening up of ARTs to new constituencies in terms of ethnicity, geography, education, and class.

Following the birth of the first “test-tube baby” in 1978, Assisted Reproductive Technologies became available to a small number of people in high-income countries able to afford the cost of private treatment, a period seen as the “First Phase” of ARTs. In the “Second Phase,” these treatments became increasingly available to cosmopolitan global elites. Today, this picture is changing — albeit slowly and unevenly — as ARTs are becoming more widely available. While, for many, accessing infertility treatments remains a dream, these are beginning to be viewed as a standard part of reproductive healthcare and family planning. This volume highlights this “Third Phase” — the opening up of ARTs to new constituencies in terms of ethnicity, geography, education, and class.

Introduction: Assisted Reproductive Technologies: A Third Phase?
Bob Simpson and Kate Hampshire

Section One: (Islamic) ART Journeys and Moral Pioneers

Introduction: New Reproductive Technologies in Islamic Local Moral Worlds
Marcia C. Inhorn

Chapter 1. ‘Islamic Bioethics’ in Transnational Perspective
Morgan Clarke

Chapter 2. Moral Pioneers: Pakistani Muslims and the Take-up of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the North of England
Bob Simpson, Mwenza Blell and Kate Hampshire

Chapter 3. Whither Kinship? Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Relatedness in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Soraya Tremayne

Chapter 4. Practitioner Perspective: Practising ARTs in Islamic Contexts
Farouk Mahmoud

Section Two:  ARTs and the Low-Income Threshold.

Introduction: ARTs in Resource-Poor Areas: Practices, Experiences, Challenges and Theoretical Debates
Trudie Gerrits

Chapter 5. Global Access to Reproductive Technologies and Infertility Care in Developing Countries
Willem Ombelet

Chapter 6. Childlessness in Bangladesh: Women’s Experiences of Access to Biomedical Infertility Services
Papreen Nahar

Chapter 7. Ethics, Identities and Agency: ART, Elites and HIV/AIDS in Botswana
Astrid Bochow

Chapter 8. A Child Cannot Be Bought? Economies of Hope and Failure When Doing ARTs in Mali
Viola Hörbst

Chapter 9. Practitioner Perspective: A View from Sri Lanka
Thilina S. Palihawadana and H.R. Seneviratne

Section Three: ARTs and Professional Practice

Introduction: Ethnic Communities, Professions and Practices
Alison Shaw

Chapter 10. Reproductive Technologies and Ethnic Minorities: Beyond a Marginalising Discourse on the Marginalised Communities
Sangeeta Chattoo

Chapter 11. Knock Knock, ‘You’re my mummy’: Anonymity, Identification and Gamete Donation in British South Asian Communities
Nicky Hudson and Lorraine Culley

Chapter 12. Practitioner Perspective: Cultural Competence from Theory to Clinical Practice
Ana Liddie Navarro and Miriam Orcutt

Notes on Contributors    
Bibliography
Index