Appropriate IVF vs. inappropriate IVF : formation of the discursive space of in-vitro fertilization in Turkey

Abstract

This study analyzes the local context of Turkey in which the reproductive technology of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) takes place. Focusing on the ways in which this global biomedical technology is understood, produced, practiced, experienced and narrativized within the locality of Turkey, this study looks at the particular formation of Artificial Insemination by Donor (AID) as an “inappropriate” technology, and the conceptualization of “conventional IVF,” where reproduction takes place between a heterosexual and married couple, as an “appropriate” technology. Looking into the legal, economic and social spheres of the practice of IVF, this thesis highlights the importance of several social processes like medicalization, economic liberalization and the formation of the nuclear family as the ideal form of social, organizational unit, to see how a global conceptive technology is shaped locally, according to the particular, contextual, discursive spaces. Avoiding essentialist explanations on the issue, this thesis looks at the intersection points of three axes – that are, the historical emergence of the nuclear family as the core organizational unit of the nation state, the conservative and familyoriented policies of the government, and the popular cultural values on issues such as motherhood, lineage, adoption and donor insemination, which are expressed repeatedly by women from different educational, social, economic and religious backgrounds. The study examines the ways in which state laws that limit the possible usages of IVF technology in Turkey to a strictly heterosexual married couple overlap with popular, cultural, moral values. Comparing the case of Turkey to Israel, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and Greece, this thesis shows that a single, global, Western technology is formulated differently as it travels from place to place and encounters different historical, political, cultural spheres. Finally, by analyzing fourteen women’s narratives of their experience with IVF, and one woman’s telling of her experience with AID, this study pays attention to several ways in which the medical procedure of IVF is carried out on the bodies of women, stressing the conscious strategies they employ as active agents to steer their way in a hectic market of test-tube babies, scrutinizing the meanings they attach to these technologies in their local moral worlds by looking into their narratives.