6 - Reproductive Technology’s Legacy of Omission

Summary

For almost 40 years the dominant cultural and media narrative about reproductive technologies, particularly in vitro fertilization (IVF), has been celebratory and hopeful. Infertility clinics feature photos of happy couples holding gurgling babies, and news headlines announce one scientific “breakthrough” and “miracle birth” after another. But beneath this veneer of medical victory lurks a world of high failure rates, skewed data, misleading sales pitches, experimental medical procedures, unprecedented ethical dilemmas, and emotional and economic exploitation. This chapter provides a personal and political snapshot of one woman’s encounter with the unregulated infertility industry in the U.S. and how she transformed her experience with failed repro tech into a memoir and later became engaged in global advocacy. This chapter provides historical information about early IVF experiments in Britain in the late 1960s and early 70s, and raises important questions about informed consent that are relevant today. It addresses ethical concerns about medical professionals motivated by profit rather than best health scenarios for patients, and touches upon the profiteering of feeder businesses. Finally, the chapter illustrates the need for more public debate on the ethics, as well as the psychological and medical safety issues related to women, potential offspring, and so-called egg donors.