Reproduction and Reproductive Technologies

Flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on reproduction and reproductive technologies.

Reproduction

The biological and social process of having or not having children.

Reproduction case studies

Kinship, work and occupations, science and technology, health and medicine, markets and commodification, bodies and embodiment, aging and life course, crime and punishment, social movements and state policies, inequalities associated with race, class, sexuality, disability, and nationality.

Studies included under reproduction

Pregnancy, birth, contraception, abortion, sterilization, infertility, adoption, reproductive technologies (e.g., IVF), surrogacy, egg donation, and sperm donation.

Reproductive justice movements

Challenged the view that reproduction was simply biological, leading to social scientific analyses of reproduction as both social and biological.

Key areas in social scientific approaches to reproduction

Pregnancy and birth, contraception and abortion, infertility, and assisted reproduction.

Critiques of pregnancy and birth studies

Medical practices around women's reproduction.

Pregnancy burden on women

Women bear the burden of risk assessment.

Focus of contraception and abortion research

Questions of access, use, effectiveness, and public opinion.

Types of assisted reproduction studies

Insemination, IVF, gestational surrogacy, and egg and sperm donation.

Shortcomings in reproduction studies

The field lacks cohesion and men are almost completely absent in research on reproduction.

Commodification in egg and sperm donation agencies

Beauty and social behavior are highly emphasized in egg donation agencies but not as much in sperm banks.

Role of race in egg and sperm donation

Race plays a role in both sperm and egg donation, but more so in egg donation.

Gender normalization in egg and sperm donation rhetoric

Egg donation is associated with altruism while sperm donation is associated with