Dr Robyn Rowland, associate professor in women’s studies at Deakin University, has worked in the area of reproductive technology for over ten years, and has addressed meetings of MPs and state government committees in England, Ireland, the USA and Australia. She has spoken and published widely in journals on reproductive technology and has contributed to many books on the subject. She is the Australian editor of ‘Issues in Reproductive and Genetic Engineering. Journal of International Feminist Analysis’ and ‘Women’s Studies International Forum’. Dr Robyn Rowland is the author of the book Woman Herself: a transdisciplinary perspective on women’s identity and of two books of poetry, and the editor of Women Who Do and Women Who Don’t join the women’s movement. Her work has been translated into German, Japanese, Swedish and Finnish. LIVING LABORATORIES WOMEN AND REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES ROBYN ROWLAND SUN AUSTRALIA First published 1992 by Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia a division of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited 63–71 Balfour Street, Chippendale, Sydney NSW 2008 A.C.N. 001 184 014 Copyright © Robyn Rowland 1992 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. National Library of Australia cataloguing-in-publication data: Rowland, Robyn, 1952– Living laboratories: women and reproductive technologies. ISBN 0 7251 0699 9. 1. Human reproductive technology—Moral and ethical aspects. 2 Women—Social conditions. I. Title 176 Typeset in 11/13 pt Varitimes by Midland Typesetters Printed in Australia by The Book Printer Grants from Deakin University and the Australian Research Council have assisted this work. For the Rainbow Lorikeet CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Part 1 Motherhood, Medicine and Men: Who’s in Control? 1 In vitro fertilisation: man makes the embryo 17 2 The masculine dream of quality control: 81 genetic engineering 3 Woman as a dissolving capsule: the 118 challenge of fetal personhood 4 The depersonalisation of birth mothers: so- 156 called ‘surrogacy’ Part 2 Setting the Context for Reproductive Control 5 The values of medical science 202 6 ‘Reprospeak’: the language of the new 230 reproductive technologies 7 Motherhood and infertility: medical science 246 co-opts ideology and desire 8 Rights, responsibilities and resistance 273 Notes and References 304 Index 345