Reproductive Technology in Courses

The following discussion of resources for adding a discussion of
reproductive technology to a gender course took place on WMST-L
in June 2005.  For additional WMST-L files available on the Web,
see the WMST-L File Collection.

I would like to add a discussion of reproductive
technology to my gender course this fall, but I am in
need of some good sources of information that I could
either assign students or just use myself to bone-up
on this topic.  I would greatly appreciate any
suggestions from the group on readings or videos that
focus specifically on the gender issues raised by the
use of reproductive technologies.

Thank you very much in advance for your assistance.
Sandy Anderson
sand9417  AT  yahoo.com

Hi Sandy-

I am an independent documentary filmmaker, and am just
finishing a film on the politics and ethics
surrounding egg donation.  I am working in partnership
with Our Bodies, Ourselves, and other organizations
from Massachusetts that have an interest in IVF
technologies and their consequences.
I'd be happy to speak to you about what I know, and
send you a copy of the film when it's done.
Feel free to get in touch.
Lauren Berliner
laurenberliner  AT  yahoo.com

An excellent source of information on Reproductive Technology is an issue
of the Journal of Social Issues [2005, Vol 61, number 1] edited by Beckman
& Harvey, published early this year. To order, see
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4537 .

************************************
Irene Hanson Frieze, PhD.
Editor, Journal of Social Issues
Professor of Psychology, Business Administration
  and Women's Studies
Department of Psychology
3329 Sennott Square
210 S. Bouquet St.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA  15260
United States of America

e-mail:  frieze  AT  pitt.edu
url:  http://www.pitt.edu/~frieze/
****************************************

HEllo!

RE: Reproductive Tech readings...
I would also look at the website for Committee for Women, Population and
the Environment at www.cwpe.org ~ See especially the packet 'Sex, Lies and
Contraceptives' and their journal 'Political Environments.' I would also
look at the following books: "Dangerous Intersections," "Policing the
National Body" and "Reproductive Rights and Wrongs"
Best
Jesse U

One reading I have used with much success (and one of the smartest
analyses of repro tech issues intersecting with race and gender) is a
chapter in Valerie Hartouni's book, _Cultural Conceptions: On Reproductive
Technologies and the Remaking of Life_ ( U Minnesota Press, 1997). The
chapter is "Breached Birth..." (I forget the rest of the title) and it's
about a California case in which a black surrogate unsuccessfully sued for
parental rights over the nonbiological child she gave birth to. The child,
incidentally, was biracial (white and Filipina) and Hartouni does an
amazing job reading the press and court opinion pieces in terms of the
narratives at play regarding biology, race, maternity, etc.

I have yet to find a video that I like regarding these issues, but I have
used _Gattaca_ a fair amount to garner some student reaction.

Katha Pollitt also wrote a great piece in The Nation about 7 or 8 years
ago on a child who had potentially 7 parents (egg donor, sperm donor,
legal mother, legal father...). It's short, very accessible, and smart. If
you can't find it, email me privately and I can find the citation at home.

Those are the highlights from my research on repro tech...

Best, Jodi

*****
Dr. Jodi Kelber-Kaye
Visiting Assistant Professor, Women's Studies
Acting Director, WILL Program
UMBC
1000 Hilltop Circle, Fine Arts 452
Baltimore, MD 21250
EMAIL: jodik  AT  umbc.edu

The Harvard School of Public Health hosts the "Reproductive
Technologies Web," an online collection of readings on
reproductive technologies, almost all of which are HTML
format.  The website is:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/rt21/

There's also a collection of readings about women of color
in the U.S. regarding reproduction, sexuality, and
feminism.  The Womem of Color Web is:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/WoC/

cheers,
Betsey Brada
----------------
Betsey Behr Brada
Graduate Student
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
email: bbbrada  AT  uchicago.edu

Marcia C. Inhorn. "Sexuality, Masculinity, and Infertility in Egypt: Potent
Troubles in the Marital and Medical Encounters." _The Journal of Men's
Studies_ 10.3 (Spring 2002): 343-359.

---. "'The Worms Are Weak': Male Infertility and Patriarchal Paradoxes in
Egypt." _Men and Masculinities_ 5.3 (2003): 236-256.

Lahoucine Ouzgane
Associate Professor
Dept of English & Film Studies
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2E5

Lahoucine.Ouzgane  AT  ualberta.ca

Hi,
I work on ultrasound and these are some of my sources. Hope they are useful
to you.

Best wishes,
Julie Palmer
jdp108  AT  york.ac.uk

Draper, Jan. 2002. "It was a real good show": The Ultrasound Scan, Fathers
and the Power of Visual Knowledge. Sociology of Health & Illness 24(6):
771-795.

Franklin, Sarah. 1991. Fetal Fascinations: New Dimensions of the
Medical-scientific Construction of Fetal Personhood. In Off-Centre. Feminism
and Cultural Studies, ed. Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey,
190-205. London: HarperCollins Academic.

Mitchell, Lisa M. 2001. Baby's First Picture: Ultrasound and the Politics of
Fetal Subjects. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Mitchell, Lisa M. & Eugenia Georges. 1997. Cross-Cultural Cyborgs: Greek and
Canadian Women's Discourses on Fetal Ultrasound. Feminist Studies 23 (2):
373-401.

Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack. 1987. Foetal Images: The Power of Visual
Culture in the Politics of Reproduction. In Reproductive Technologies:
Gender, Motherhood and Medicine, ed. Michelle Stanworth, 57-80. Cambridge &
Oxford: Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell.

Sandelowski, Margarete. 1994. Separate, but Less Unequal: Fetal
Ultrasonography & the Transformation of Expectant Mother/Fatherhood. Gender
& Society 8(2): 230-245.

Sandelowski, Margarete and Linda Corson Jones. 1996. Healing Fictions:
Stories of Choosing in the Aftermath of the Detection of Fetal Anomalies.
Social Science and Medicine 42 (3): 353-361.

Stabile, Carol A. 1994. Shooting the Mother: Fetal Photography & the
Politics of Disappearance. In Feminism and the Technological Fix.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Taylor, Janelle S. 1992. The Public Fetus & the Family Car: From Abortion
Politics to a Volvo Advertisement. Public Culture 4 (2): 67-80.

Taylor Janelle S. 1998. Image of Contradiction: Obstetrical Ultrasound in
American Culture. In Reproducing Reproduction: Kinship, Power and
Technological Innovation, ed. Sarah Franklin & Helena RagonT, 15-45.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Taylor, Janelle S. 2000. Of Sonograms and Baby Prams: Prenatal Diagnosis,
Pregnancy and Consumption. Feminist Studies 26 (2): 391-418.