Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

In cross-border reproductive care, cultural understanding is key to the well-being of both professionals and patients. This article shows how anthropological understanding of diversity and anthropological methods can help with cultural translation throughout the communication and care processes.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2016, Spain is the first country in Europe -and the third in the world- where the largest number of assisted reproductive treatments are undertaken (Marre et al, 2018, Wyns et al, 2020), most of them with egg donation. In 2016, 12,939 treatments (SEF, 2016) were performed for foreign patients in Spain, a number which increased to 18,475 in 2019 (SEF, 2019). Regarding cross-border reproductive travels, cultural differences between reproductive health providers and patients usually require not only linguistic but also cultural translation to allow mutual understanding (Desy and Marre, forthcoming).

This article aims to show how anthropological understanding of diversity as well as anthropological methodologies, help to improve communication between reproductive health providers and patients and their well-being (Gerstein et al 2007; Varenne, 2003) in a private clinic in Barcelona since 2016, through the AFIN-ART Support Service .

The anthropological framework is particularly useful in helping providers and patients to recognise that the individual understanding and values attributed to reproductive issues such as parenthood, genetics, gametes, embryos, children, and parenthood are not universal. They depend on the social and cultural meanings of their society. Moreover, considering the social and cultural meaning of reproduction, the process of "kinning" (Howell, 2005) and the relationship with genetics, biology, society, culture, personal values and lifestyles, as well as being able to question what seems to be indisputable, helps patients and especially women to find alternative narratives to understand, give meaning to, and cope with the contradictions they face in an assisted reproductive process.