In Vitro Fertilization
| Published date | 01 April 1987 |
| Author | Andrea Bonnicksen |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218700800205 |
| Date | 01 April 1987 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
147-1
In
Vitro
Fertilization:
A
Women’s
Political
Issue
ANDREA
BONNICKSEN
ABSTRACT.
Public
debate
and
policy
about
in
vitro
fertilization
tend
to
revolve
around
the
ethical
dimensions
of
experimentation
with
embryos.
In
vitro
fertilization
is,
however,
performed
on
women,
is
designed
to
circumvent
female
infertility,
and
offers
new
reproductive
choices
to
women.
This
paper
argues
that
in
vitro
fertilization
is
a
woman’s
technology
and,
as
such,
ought
to
be
recognized
as
a
political
issue
with
feminist
overtones.
It
suggests
that
women’s
rights
groups
take
the
lead
in
encouraging
debate
about
the
feminist
implications
of
in
vitro
fertilization
and
in
monitoring
public
policy
as
it
relates
to
women’s
interests.
A
west
coast
schoolteacher
joined
thousands
of
other
American
women
when
she
tried
to
conceive
by
in
vitro
(in
glass)
fertilization
and
failed.
She
and
her
husband
had
paid
thousands
of
dollars
for
what
they
saw
as
their
last
chance
at
biological
parenthood.
Disappointed
for
herself,
and
for
the
other
women
who
had
unsuccessfully
tried
in
vitro
in
the
same
clinic
at
the
same
time
as
she,
and
angry
that
opponents
attacked
in
vitro
as
unethical,
she
declared
that
in
vitro
&dquo;is
an
issue
for
womankind
I
This
woman’s
observation
notwithstanding,
in
vitro
fertilization
is
debated
as
a
moral
issue,
a
legal
issue,
and
an
ethical
issue,
but
rarely
is
it
seen
as
a
women’s
issue.
The
tendency
to
overlook
in
vitro’s
implications
for
women
takes
on
new
importance
as
in
vitro
fertilization
grows
in
popularity.
One
hundred
and
twenty-five
in
vitro
centers
in
26
states
accept
thousands
of
patients
each
year
(American
Fertility
Society,
July
1,
1985,
official
listing).
Several
of
these
centers
practice
embryo
freezing;
others
accept
donor
sperm
and
eggs.
As
recent
events
signal
a
growing
interest
in
developing
an
in
vitro
policy,
it
becomes
increasingly
important
for
the
interests
of
women
with
regard
to
in
vitro
fertilization
to
be
heard
and
represented.
A
Woman’s
Technology
In
vitro
fertilization
involves
surgically
removing
eggs
from
a
woman’s
follicles,
uniting
the
eggs
with
the
husband’s
sperm
in
a
glass
dish,
and
transferring
the
cleaving
eggs
to
the
woman’s
uterus
two
days
later.
Several
hundred
American
infants
have
been born
as
a
result
of
conception
in
vitro;
nearly
3000
have
been
born
worldwide.
In
the
years
since
the
world’s
first
in
vitro
baby
was
born
in
1978,
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