Fertility tourists or global consumers? A sociological agenda for exploring cross-border reproductive travel.

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) raise significant issues at the interface of bodies, technologies and societies and as such there is an extensive literature devoted to infertility and ARTs within psychology, sociology, bioethics and the law. Little of this work however, has addressed the transnational aspects of reproductive technologies. The use of ARTs is subject to the specific contexts of national states, but at the same time global interaction is evident in both the development of the technologies, and in their clinical application. As such, there are indications that, for a variety of reasons, individuals and couples are increasingly travelling abroad from the UK in their quest for a child. Drawing on work from an ESRC funded research project exploring the experiences of couples who are engaged in what is popularly known as ‘fertility tourism’ (RES 000-22-33900), this paper examines key debates and proposes a sociological agenda for exploring the growing phenomenon of the cross-border use of ARTs.