Problems of Conception (eBook)

Issues of Law, Biotechnology, Individuals and Kinship

Marit Melhuus (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2012
186 Seiten
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-0-85745-503-1 (ISBN)

Infos

The Biotechnology Act in Norway, one of the most restrictive in Europe, forbids egg donation and surrogacy and has rescinded the anonymity clause with respect to donor insemination. Thus, it limits people's choice as to how they can procreate within the boundaries of the nation state. The author pursues this significant datum ethnographically and addresses the issues surrounding contemporary biopolitics in Norway. This involves investigating such fundamental questions as the relation between individual and society, meanings of kinship and relatedness, the moral status of the embryo and the role of science, religion and ethics in state policies. Even though the book takes reproductive technologies as its focus, it reveals much about vital processes that are central to contemporary Norwegian society.

Autor

Marit Melhuus is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. She has previously worked in Argentina and Mexico, focusing on issues of development, economic anthropology, gender and morality.

Inhalt

Preface and acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Framing the issues


Introduction

Kinship – a new beginning?

Some other issues

Law/imagination

The involuntary childless

Some reflections on the precautionary principle and a bit more

The state of Norway and the notion of equality


Chapter 2. Children of one’s own


A first encounter

Having an own child

An issue of sameness

An own child – a first approximation

To try everything; to tell or not to tell

What makes a child your own?

Drawing together


Chapter 3. Better safe than sorry


Uncomfortable relations

Legislative process: acts and revisions

Artificial insemination by donor – pro et contra

Bringing the past to the present

The making of a law

The first revision – 1994

Second and third revisions: 2003 and 2007

In sum


Chapter 4. The inviolability of motherhood


Establishing parenthood

Of eggs and sper

Mater semper certa est

Disruptive effects

Pater vero?  Turning the tables

By way of conclusion


Chapter 5. The sorting society: knowledge, selection, ethics


Reproductive choice

The sorting society

A parliamentary incident

Looking back: a few comments on eugenics

The law and the Church

Ethical dilemmas/ethical publicity

Some final remarks


Chapter 6. Concluding reflections – and a Postscript


Global reach – local appropriation

Facts and values

Controversies – contested sites

Post script – legal (un)certainties


Chapter 7. Some notes on  methodology

References
Public documents cited or consulted

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.8.2012
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Studium ► 1. Studienabschnitt (Vorklinik) ► Histologie / Embryologie
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Anthropology (General), Sociology, Medical Anthropology • General Anthropology,
• ISBN-10: 0-85745-503-6 / 0857455036
• ISBN-13: 978-0-85745-503-1 / 9780857455031