Www. Cufareheathaud illoes.cou Gender and reproduction as primarily a problem with the woman and not They have also altered perceptions of the physical the man. Sometimes a supernatural cause for the functions and boundaries of the individual body, infertility is suggested, but rarely is the potency of particularly the female body the husband questioned, and most men would Despite this, their popularity continues to grow never acknowledge the possibility of their own By 2006 it was estimated that about 3 million chil sterility. In this type of setting, the very suggestion dren had been conceived from in vitro fertilization chat they, and not their wives are sterile may be world-wide. 73 In some countries such as Japan very threatening to many/men. For example, however, there has been both public and official Palgi7i describes the case of a Yemenite man from opposition to the use of these procedures. 73 a traditional background who had emigrated to Although a whole range of NRTs is now avail Israel. When his first wife failed to produce a child, able, and in different combinations, the best he divorced her. Wheh the second marriage was known of them are also childless, and doctors told him that he was the in vitro fertilization(IVF), involving ovum or sterile one, he suffered a severe emotional collapse, sperm donation, either by the spouse of the with fearfulness, insomnia and a feeling of being infertile person or by an anonymous donor tormented by evil spirits. Palgi links this reaction to cultural beliefs in his community that a man's surrogate motherhood, whereby one woman dignity and respe are linked to the number of his carries a baby on behalf of another, and then gives it to her once it is born; the foetus may be cogens, esp Sons. Furthermore a common belief was that if there were no heirs to pray for a either the surrogate mother's own child by the tather's soulfafter death, then"his peaceful life after husband of the infertile woman. or the Eeath is endangered. Similarly, Inhorn?described implanted, fertilized egg of another couple bow in twb other Middle Eastern settings -Cairo, Other, more advanced techniques of assisted con Egypt, ard Beirut, Lebanon - Arab men also saw ception which may become freely available in the cheir infertility as a stigmatized and problematic future (at least to the population of richer coun- iity and manhood (ICSI), genetic cloning, and the use of embryon.a dition, and one that threatened their very sense tries), include intracytoplasmic sperm injectio ItAhould be noted, however, that these defini- stem cells. conf of who is responsible for the infertility are Before the development of the NRTs,ovulation static. They are susceptible to significant fertilization and pregnancy were events tha: ges during Westernization, migration, urban- took place within the same woman's body. N / rion and other major social changes. one or more may take place outside her body. or eciL G Helwan even in the bodies of three different women. In -SSISTED REPRODUCTION: THE NEW 1983. Snowden and colleagues divid: CEPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES maternal role into three parts: the genetic mo:: the carrying mother, and the nurturing mo:er.- h recent decades, in most industrialized countries, woman who performs all three roles they descnbed cere have been major advances in the medical as a 'complete mother,. As a result or the develop reatment of infertility, both male and female. ment of IVF and surrogate motherhood. howe:. A:hough they have helped many infertile couples it is now possible for each of these roles :o b:.- b conceive, the new reproductive technologies ried out by a different woman: one pro NRTs) remain controversial. This is largely egg(also known as the ' commissioning morn se:ause they have challenged the very notions of another bearing the child (the 'carrying mother ashi unship and parenthood, especially the rela- and a third caring for the baby once i: is born p between social and biological parenthood. Does the child therefore have one mother or two 177
Culture, health and ilLness or even three? And which one, from its point of lying anxiety was about the breaching of "natural view, is the realone? boundaries between people, and between genera A potential effect of the NRTs is thus to widen tions, by these new technologies and the'unnatu the split between biological and social parenthood. ral consequences that might follow from this. This This does not apply only to motherhood; it has applied even if the incest'did not result from sex been estimated that up to 20 per cent of children ual intercourse, but only from a technological born in the Uk are not biologically related to their intervention. In other societies, too, there is unea 'fathers, and the use of IvF with sperm donation about some of the NRTs, and even outright rejec is likely to increase this percentage. Another result tion of them. Inhorn pointed out that some has been the creation of new and complex webs of Middle Eastern societies reject surrogate pregnan kinship between, for example, 'carrying mothers' cies on religious grounds, as well as rejecting IVF if and commissioning mothers, children and their it involves a third-party donation of sperm, ova, or unknown genetic ' mothers'or fathers, couples embryos; Gatrad and Sheikhs note that in Islam and the anonymous donor of their child's ovum or sperm donation is only acceptable if it originates sperm, and grandparents and grandchildren who from the woman's spouse are not genetically related to one another. In Western industrialized societies, where Konrad, 6 for example, described the sense of nuclear families are often the rule, social and bio- frelatedness' felt by both ova donors and recipi- logical parenthood usually coincide, except in the ents, even if they never meet one another in person. case of adoption, or where remarriage takes place The long-term effects of the NRTs on people's following divorce or death of a spouse. Although perceptions of parenthood and kinship, remain to the new forms of kinship created by the NRTs be seen. Research indicates, however, that while appear novel and unusual to Western culture. they are welcomed by infertile couples, they are anthropologists have described many examples or also provoking some unease in the general popula- what amounts to 'surrogate parenthood, with tion. For example, in her study of women an social and biological parenting being provided by English town, Edwards"found that they expressed different people. This is particularly common in anxiety about the possibility of incest, or other for- traditional societies where large extended families bidden types of biological union, resulting from the are the rule and children may be cared for by a NRTs. They feared that if two people, born of the variety of adults -aunts, uncles, grandparents same donated ova or sperm(in effect half-siblings) older siblings and neighbours as well as by the were to meet one day, marry, and produce a child, own biological parents. For example, Evans without knowledge of their genetic relationship, Pritchard, in the early 1950s, described unusua this would amount to incest(and interbreeding), patterns of kinship and marriage among the Nuer and their child would be in danger of being born people of the Sudan. Here, the failure to have ar Insane otherwise damaged. The same children, especially males to carry on the name. anxiety was expressed about children born from was regarded as a great tragedy by every Nuet the same surrogate mother, even if they were not family, and they adopted various strategies to over- biologically related, because they were both nour- come this problem. For example, in ' ghost ma: ished by the same "mothers blood In their view, 'a riage, which occurs when a man dies without lega. surrogate mother, though not genetically related to male heirs, a kinsman of his (such as brother o: he fetus she carries, is inevitably and literally con- nephew) marries the widow in the name of ha nected by the blood that flows between them. dead kinsman; as a result, the children of that There was also unease about a man donating union are regarded as belonging to the dead m cerm to his son's wife, if the son was infertile, as and the sons will carry his name. The woman :s cis would also be 'like incest. Overall, the under- known as ciekjooka, the wife of a ghost, and h
Gender and reproducti children are gaatjooka, children of a ghost. In the world, especially in rural areas. The reasons for another pattern, woman marriage, a barren this are a complex mixture of cultural values. eco- woman 'marries' another woman and then nomic imperatives, government policy and sexist arranges for a male kinsman or friend to make her ideology. For example, Miller8I described female pregnant. The children of this union become part infanticide, as well as the fatal neglect of some of the 'husband's' family (who would not other- female children, in a society with a strongly pat wise have any descendants); she is regarded as archal culture in the Punjab, northern India.A their legal father, they will carry her name, and similar situation has been reported for many vears sometimes they even refer to her as 'father, from parts of rural China, even before the govern- Both 'ghost marriage'and woman marriage' ment's current'one-child' policy 82 among the Nuer can be regarded as analogous to The particular ' population policy'of a culture the sperm donation of IVE, although the donor, of may include a widespread tolerance of abortion course,is not anonymous Ovum donation, how- acceptance of abortion under certain limited efr ever, was technically impossible until recent devel- cumstances, or strict taboos against it at any/stage opments in reproductive technology. Overall, of pregnancy or for any rekson. In the Western hough, the growth of the NRTs in most Western world, the debate on abortion centres both on countries is likely to result in a gradual weakening whether the woman is entitled to control over her of the neat equation between biological and social own body and fertility, and on whether the foetus arenthood, in new definitions of family and kin- is regarded as a 'person', with the same rights as ship, and in a growing anxiety about whether fer. other members of the society, or merely as an alization, pregnancy and parenthood are still the organ or collection of cells. natural processes that they once were Abortion is a controversial issue in many soci eties, and there are/ many different cultural atti CONTRACEPTION, ABORTION AND tudes towards it. It is illegal in some societies, but INFANTICIDE accepted in others. Much of this definition depends on when -or whether-the fetus is regarded as a Different attitudes to contraception, abortion and complete /person, with all the rights that this nianticide, all of which can be seen as forms of implies, Different societies, with different religious copulation control, seem to vary widely between and legal frameworks, place this point of becot cuitures.Part ofthe reason for a society practising ing human'at different stages of the pregnancy nfanticide, for example, may be the size of the some at the very moment of fertilization, others population, its food Supply and the particular eco- several months later. 83 Societies also vary as to logical niche that it occupies. In some cases the whether, and how, they help women who Have had tants of one gender may be killed, but not the an abortion or miscarriage, deal with tht emo cher, as in the case of the Nenetehara, a Brazilian tional consequences of these events. An interesting Indian tribe, who believed tha a woman should example of this are the Mizuko shrines in Japan save three children, but not all oNthe same sex; if dedicated to Jizo, a Buddhist bottisatu or enik she had two daughters (or two sokS) and gave ened being who is the guardian of all unb brth to a third, then the baby would be killed(see aborted, miscarried or stillborn babies. The sh Chapter 12).Overall, as Keesing 80 noted, in the is a sacred place which allows women ( and men cast'there is little doubt that peoples with fnite grieve openly for the souls of their unborn babies srace and resources in many parts of the world In the case of an abortion, the mother may carry practised infanticide, of both sexes or of females, out the mizuko kuyo, a ritual of apology and o as to restrict population numbers,. Infanticide remembrance, and leave offerings at the shrine of female babies still persists in different parts of toys, flowers, or food. In general. Western society