Full Description
The Biotechnology Act in Norway, one of the most restrictive in Europe, forbids egg donation and surrogacy and has rescinded the anonymity clause with respect to donor insemination. Thus, it limits people's choice as to how they can procreate within the boundaries of the nation state. The author pursues this significant datum ethnographically and addresses the issues surrounding contemporary biopolitics in Norway. This involves investigating such fundamental questions as the relation between individual and society, meanings of kinship and relatedness, the moral status of the embryo and the role of science, religion and ethics in state policies. Even though the book takes reproductive technologies as its focus, it reveals much about vital processes that are central to contemporary Norwegian society.
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Framing the issues
Introduction
Kinship - a new beginning?
Some other issues
Law/imagination
The involuntary childless
Some reflections on the precautionary principle and a bit more
The state of Norway and the notion of equality
Chapter 2. Children of one's own
A first encounter
Having an own child
An issue of sameness
An own child - a first approximation
To try everything; to tell or not to tell
What makes a child your own?
Drawing together
Chapter 3. Better safe than sorry
Uncomfortable relations
Legislative process: acts and revisions
Artificial insemination by donor - pro et contra
Bringing the past to the present
The making of a law
The first revision - 1994
Second and third revisions: 2003 and 2007
In sum
Chapter 4. The inviolability of motherhood
Establishing parenthood
Of eggs and sper
Mater semper certa est
Disruptive effects
Pater vero? Turning the tables
By way of conclusion
Chapter 5. The sorting society: knowledge, selection, ethics
Reproductive choice
The sorting society
A parliamentary incident
Looking back: a few comments on eugenics
The law and the Church
Ethical dilemmas/ethical publicity
Some final remarks
Chapter 6. Concluding reflections - and a Postscript
Global reach - local appropriation
Facts and values
Controversies - contested sites
Post script - legal (un)certainties
Chapter 7. Some notes on methodology
References
Public documents cited or consulted
