Speaker: Dott.ssa Corinna Sabrina Guerzoni
Discussant: Dr. Marcin Smietana, University of Cambridge
“Global Fertility Flows: the Case of Embryodonation”
Brief description of the seminar:
The seminar will focus on transnational reproduction and specifically on an ongoing research on embryodonation. One of the salient features of artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs) is their being able to move large flows of people, from multiple points of view: morally, physically, economically and emotionally (Melhuus M., 2009). Indeed, ARTs do not travel without obstacles and, although available globally, locally they are covered by a series of limitations (cultural, legal and economic) that differ from one state to another. The data available regarding cross-border patient’s movements see USA, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Israel and the United Kingdom as preferred destinations (Shenfield et al. 2010; Hunt et al. 2013). As shown in literature, the legal dimension is what most drives individuals to seek care elsewhere; what is forbidden in one state is to be accessible in another, therefore one moves towards a state that has fewer restrictions than one’s own. Italy is recognized to have one of the most restrictive laws (40/2004) in Europe on ARTs (Zanini 2013) characterized by a very long list of prohibitions, in where the access to ARTs is reserved to a specific category of people: heterosexual couples with proven infertility issues. Every year, a growing number of Italians travel abroad to have access to ARTs. Using the theoretical concept of “fertility chains” (Vertommen, Pavone, Nahman, 2021), I will show how the phenomena of embryodonation is developed within a transnational reproscape.