Middle Eastern Gender Identity and New Reproductive Technology

这个项目由密歇根大学的一位人类学家完成，研究阿拉伯文化中的男性身份如何受到男性不育症的影响。该项目研究了新的生殖技术在中东是如何使用(或不使用)的，在那里，虔诚的穆斯林男性被禁止接受捐赠者受精或合法收养。该项目将在埃及的一家城市和半农村的不孕不育诊所以及底特律的中东男性中研究生殖技术的使用，包括卵胞浆内单精子注射(一种允许严重不育男性为自己亲生子女的技术)，底特律是美国此类人口最多的城市。该项目将在埃及采访100名不育男性，以及100名有生育能力的男性的对照样本，以及不育男性的妻子和医学专家，以了解当父亲、婚姻和男子汉意识本身可能受到威胁时，如何做出道德和务实的决定。将测试几个假设，将男性不育与吸烟、血缘关系、铅暴露等文化相关因素以及男性意识、婚姻关系、求医和道德联系起来。通过对两个阿拉伯裔美国人医疗中心的研究，将研究中东男性到美国进行不孕不育治疗的“医疗移民”。将通过对男性、他们的妻子和医学专家的深入访谈，研究西方背景对中东男性宗教道德的影响。这项研究将促进我们对中东文化背景下的男性身份和男子气概的理解，并应引起那些关注中东文化和社会性质的人的广泛兴趣。

0217299InhornThis project by an anthropologist from the University of Michigan studies how masculine identity in Arab culture is affected by male infertility. The project studies how new reproductive technologies are used (or not used) in the Middle East, where religiously observant Muslim men are prohibited from accepting donor insemination or legal adoption. The project will study the use of reproductive technologies, including intracytoplasmic sperm injection (a technique which allows severely infertile men to father their own biological children) in an urban and a semi-rural infertility clinic in Egypt, as well as among Middle East men in Detroit, a city with the largest such population in the US. The project will interview in Egypt 100 infertile men, as well as a control sample of 100 fertile men, as well as a smaller sample of infertile men's wives, and medical specialists to understand how moral as well as pragmatic decisions are made when fatherhood, marriage, and a sense of manhood itself may be at stake. Several hypotheses will be tested linking male infertility to culturally relevant factors such as smoking, consanguinity, lead exposure, and also to the sense of masculinity, marital relations, medical treatment-seeking, and morality. The "medical migration" of Middle Eastern men to the US for infertility treatment will be studied through a focus on two Arab-American medical centers. The impact of the Western context on religious morality of Middle Eastern men will be studied through in-depth interviews with men, their wives, and medical specialists. This research will advance our understanding of male identity and masculinity in a Middle Eastern cultural context, and should be of wide interest to those concerned with the nature of Middle Eastern culture and society.