Globalization and Reproductive Tourism in the Arab World

全球化与阿拉伯世界的生殖旅游

• 批准号: 0907901
• 负责人: Marcia Inhorn
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-09 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0907901&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Globalization; Reproductive; Tourism; Arab; World

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.

这项为期三年的研究考察了“生殖旅游”这一新的全球现象，其定义是为了追求辅助生殖技术(ART)而进行的旅行，通常是从一个国家到另一个国家。文献中引用了六个促进生殖旅游的因素。这些问题包括宗教禁令、缺乏专业知识和用品、安全、对某些类别个人的歧视、短缺和等待名单以及费用。然而，生殖旅游的这些原因仍然是猜测，因为这一现象从未得到实证研究。因此，这项拟议的研究是第一次在经验层面上调查生殖旅游这一新的全球现象。这项研究将调查和比较阿拉伯世界两个流动性高的移民社区的生殖旅游：1)阿拉伯联合酋长国(UAE)，目前中东的旅游之都；2)“阿拉伯底特律”，北美最大的阿拉伯民族飞地，也是所谓的阿拉伯美洲的首都。这两个地点都是主要面向穆斯林人口的艺术中心的所在地。艺术中心的客户包括出于经济和政治原因在这些社区定居的移民，他们发现自己不育，以及从遥远的国家赶来的“生殖游客”，目的是获得医疗建议、最新技术，在某些情况下，还包括捐赠者的游戏。在每个网站，将收集数据以检验四个主要假设：1)生殖旅游的原因；2)伊斯兰对身体商品化和人类配子捐赠的态度；3)寻求艺术的限制；以及4)性别和婚姻关系，因为它们影响和影响生殖旅游。鉴于阿拉伯世界生殖旅游的独特特点，这些调查领域很重要：例如，逊尼派穆斯林禁止第三方配子捐赠，而什叶派伊斯兰教最近鼓励捐赠技术。此外，阿拉伯海湾是一个特别有趣的生殖旅游景点，因为它的石油财富，大量的外籍劳动力，以及高比例的包办婚姻，血缘关系和一夫多妻制。这与阿拉伯底特律形成鲜明对比，在底特律，大约400 000名阿拉伯居民，包括许多最近来自黎巴嫩和伊拉克的战争难民，有很大一部分人过着贫穷的生活，但需要生殖保健服务。这项研究是第一次对阿拉伯世界乃至整个世界范围内日益增长的全球生殖旅游现象进行调查。因此，它将为多个领域的研究做出贡献，包括医学人类学、全球化人类学、科学技术研究、性别研究以及后9·11伊拉克战争时代的中东研究。此外，鉴于在全球范围内对艺术和生殖旅游立法的呼声越来越高，这项研究的实证结果对社会政策具有重要意义。这项研究可以深入了解生殖游客本身的经历和关切，从而揭示全球生殖旅游的世界，这个世界正在蓬勃发展，但仍笼罩在神秘之中。