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Accepted Paper:

British Pakistanis, new reproductive technologies, and transnational (in)fertilities  
Mwenza Blell (Newcastle University) Bob Simpson (Durham University) Kate Hampshire (Durham University)

Paper short abstract:

This paper reports on an anthropological study of Pakistani-origin patients in an IVF clinic in the Northeast of England and explores issues arising as members of a transnational community confront the controversies that come with the choices that new reproductive technologies make available.

Paper long abstract:

Infertility is rapidly becoming one of the most important reproductive health issues in the industrialised world and the new reproductive technologies (NRTs) designed to treat it are becoming more and more widely available. The social and emotional impacts of infertility are variable but, among the British Pakistani population, they are generally acknowledged to be serious, especially for women (e.g. Shaw, 2000; 2004). This paper explores data from participant observation and in-depth interviews with people of Pakistani-origin seeking infertility treatment in an IVF clinic in the Northeast of England. We explore the issues that arise as British Pakistanis confront the controversies that come with the choices that NRTs make available. As others have observed (e.g. Ballard, 1994), many South Asians who live in the UK live highly transnational lives, maintaining close links with family in their country of origin (usually referred to as "home"). These links are pivotal in the ways in which British Pakistanis deal with infertility. These include: seeking advice from relatives or religious figures in Pakistan, travelling to Pakistan for treatment, adopting children from relatives in Pakistan, or seeking new marriage partners in Pakistan. We discuss the ways in which the transnational flows of advice/information, medicines (biomedical and other) and people (children to adopt, new marriage partners) affect the experience of seeking treatment in the UK using new reproductive technologies. Discussions of infertility and NRTs bring out complex relationships between issues of identity and ethnicity; marriage and the family; and relations between science and religion.

Panel P07
Knowledge, power and health in South Asia: historical tensions and emerging issues
  Session 1