"I want a baby, don't stop me from being a mother." An ethnographic study on fertility technology in the medical gray zones.

Summary, in English

The increasing demand for human egg

cells has led to reproductive tourism and a

transnational egg trade. The activity flourishes

due to poverty and criminality, as well as medical

needs (infertility) and cultural needs (the dream of

parenthood). Other factors are fundamental

concepts, such as the view of the body as an object

of utility and value. This article aims to go behind

the normative discussions that usually surround

different forms of assisted reproductive

technology (ART), fertility tourism, and the egg

trade. It further calls for an understanding of how

the local, culturally embedded use of reproductive

technology is put into practice. The material,

collected from Sweden, Eastern Europe, and the Middle

East, consists of observations, in-depth interviews, reports

from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and

authorities in these countries, and global media reporting.

I also draw on my previous research on reproductive

technology and ongoing organ-trafficking fieldwork.

• Author: Susanne Lundin
• Department/s: Division of Ethnology
• Publishing year: 2012
• Language: English
• Pages: 327-344
• Publication/Series: Cultural Politics
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/17432197-1575192
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Topic: Ethnology
• Keywords: egg trade; gray zones; ethnography; narrative work
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1743-2197