Paper long abstract:

Reproductive tourism has grown as one of the main forms of medical tourism. American tourists are especially interested in more affordable treatments, since treatments in the United States are not covered by insurance. It is important, however, to remember that decisions to travel for health care go well beyond purely economic terms.

The question remains: Why is the Czech Republic a common destination site for Americans? What factors lead people to choose the Czech Republic over other low cost locations? This paper will characterize tourist motivations for choosing the Czech Republic, by analyzing data derived from ethnographic research. It will be important to elicit whether reproductive travelers feel they have escaped a potentially threatening confrontation over parental rights by traveling abroad for donation. The results of this research will provide a case study of reproductive tourism in a post-socialist Czech context.