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Social and Ethical Implications of In Vitro Fertilization in Contemporary China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Lisa Handwerker
Lisa Handwerker
Affiliation:
Research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, Beatrice M. Bain Research Institute. She Chairs the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, an affiliated group of the American Anthropological Association.
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Extract

In March 1988 the People's Republic of China announced the birth of the first test-tube baby born to a 39-year-old infertile peasant woman. This surprise announcement appeared in strong contradiction to China's population reduction goals amidst a population crisis. Yet, the media attention given to this medical achievement would seem to be consistent with the political, social, and economic changes taking place in the last decade, including technological innovation as the key to a modern socialist nation. In short, this announcement highlights tensions facing China as it simultaneously attempts to modernize within a trans-national economy, control population, and maintain traditional Confucian family values within a rapidly changing context.

Type
Special Section: Designs on Life: Choice, Control, and Responsibility in Genetic Manipulation
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , Summer 1995 , pp. 355 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

Notes

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