Globalization and Reproductive Tourism in the Arab World

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This three-year study examines the new global phenomenon of "reproductive tourism," defined as travel in the pursuit of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), usually from one country to another. Six factors promoting reproductive tourism have been cited in the literature. These include religious prohibitions, lack of expertise and supplies, safety, discrimination against certain categories of individuals, shortages and waiting lists, and costs. However, these causes of reproductive tourism remain conjectural, as this phenomenon has never been studied empirically. Thus, the proposed study is the first of its kind to investigate the new global phenomenon of reproductive tourism on an empirical level. This study will investigate and compare reproductive tourism in two highly mobile, migrant communities in the Arab world: 1) the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the current tourist capital of the Middle East; and 2) "Arab Detroit," the largest Arab ethnic enclave in North America and the so-called capital of Arab America. Both of these sites are home to ART centers that cater primarily to Muslim populations. ART center clientele include migrants who have settled in these communities for economic and political reasons, only to discover that they are infertile, as well as "reproductive tourists" who travel from distant countries with the intention of receiving medical advice, the latest technologies, and, in some cases, donor gametes.In each site, data will be collected to test four major hypotheses concerning: 1) the causes of reproductive tourism; 2) Islamic attitudes toward bodily commodification and human gamete donation; 3) arenas of constraint on ART-seeking; and 4) gender and marital relations, as they affect and are affected by reproductive tourism. These domains of inquiry are important, given unique features of reproductive tourism in the Arab world: for example, a Sunni Muslim ban on third-party gamete donation versus recent encouragement of donor technologies in Shi'a Islam. In addition, the Arab Gulf is a particularly interesting site of reproductive tourism, given its oil wealth, large expatriate labor force, and high rates of arranged marriage, consanguinity, and polygyny. This stands in contrast to Arab Detroit, where a significant portion of the approximately 400,000 Arab residents:, including many recent war refugees from Lebanon and Iraq, endure impoverished lives, yet require reproductive health services. This research is the first of its kind to examine the growing global phenomenon of reproductive tourism within the Arab world and also generally. As such, it will contribute to multiple fields of study, including medical anthropology, the anthropology of globalization, science and technology studies, gender studies, and Middle Eastern studies in a post-September 11th, war-in-Iraq era. In addition, the empirical findings of this research are of great importance to social policy, given increasing calls for legislation of ARTs and reproductive tourism on a global level. This study can provide insights into the experiences and concerns of reproductive tourists themselves, thereby shedding light on a world of global reproductive tourism that is burgeoning, but still shrouded in mystery.