The Introduction of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the “Developing World”: A Test Case for Evolving Methodologies in Feminist Bioethics

Abstract

The global spread of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a useful test case for exploring the growing interest in feminist bioethics in incorporating both human rights and development perspectives. Drawing directly from the discourses of international human rights and calling attention to structural relationships in the development and distribution of health care goods, this essay illustrates how a dual‐lens ethical analysis illuminates otherwise hidden or ignored features of the globalization of ART. Part 1 argues for the importance of viewing the introduction of ART in the global South in light of the specific economic, political, and cultural factors mediating the experience of infertility, especially for women. In this way, the intersection of social values and cultural pressures around reproduction with commercial interests in expanding existing ART markets becomes clearly visible. Part 2 shows how a dual‐lens approach takes the ethical questions regarding ART in a global marketplace beyond the standard principles of informed consent and equity to ask what sorts of investments might serve women’s health and development understood in terms of the multilayered relationships of power within which women live. Finally, the analysis of global trends in ART raises questions for the scope and focus of international advocacy for social and economic justice.