Assisted Reproduction Across Borders. Feminist Perspectives on Normalizations, Disruptions and Transmissions Editorial Introduction
The introduction presents the rationale and main aims of the co edited volume. It explains the starting points that assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in the 21st century are no longer 'new technology' or cutting edge science but are rather regarded as mundane practice, and that the reproductive possibilities opened by ARTs from commercialized transnational traffic in eggs, sperm, embryos and gestational labour to new queer family buildings continue to make legislators perplex and create moral dilemmas leading to all kinds of restrictions and exclusionary practices. Against this background, the main purpose is defined as taking stock of this complex situation, and look at the contradictions, disruptions and renegotiations which it generates a purpose which gives rise to the framing of two more specific aims: 1) to study the social and cultural aspects of ARTs as something that is integrated into both public health services and people's understanding of common ways to achieve pregnancy, 2) and to do so against the background of data gathered from a wide array of social, cultural and geopolitical contexts, combining a European focus with a strong global outlook, which opens possibilities to reflect on the workings of different local constraints and enablings. The chapter also provides a detailed reflection on the complementary perspectives of the differently located contributions and the ways they each address one of five overall themes: transnational reproflows, national constraints and conditions, religious and other kinds of fundamentalism, demographic agendas and biopolitics, and 'new normals' and their discontents, considered important for a general understanding of policies, discourses and practices of ARTs in the contemporary world.