Globalization and Reproductive Tourism in the Arab World

这项为期三年的研究审查了“生殖旅游”这一新的全球现象，其定义是通常从一个国家到另一个国家寻求辅助生殖技术的旅行。文献中列举了促进生殖旅游的六个因素。 这些问题包括宗教禁令、缺乏专门知识和用品、安全、歧视某些类别的个人、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不确定的，因为这一现象从来没有得到过实证研究。因此，拟议的研究是第一次在实证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生殖旅游在两个高度移动的，移民社区在阿拉伯世界：1）阿拉伯联合酋长国（阿联酋），目前的旅游资本的中东;和2）“阿拉伯底特律”，最大的阿拉伯民族飞地在北美和所谓的阿拉伯美洲的首都。 这两个地点都是主要为穆斯林人口服务的ART中心的所在地。抗逆转录病毒治疗中心的服务对象包括因经济和政治原因在这些社区定居的移民，但他们发现自己无法生育，以及从遥远的国家前来接受医疗咨询、最新技术，有时还包括捐赠配子的“生殖游客”。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）对寻求艺术的限制领域;以及4）性别和婚姻关系，因为它们影响生殖旅游并受其影响。鉴于阿拉伯世界生殖旅游的独特性，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，阿拉伯湾是一个特别有趣的生殖旅游地，因为它拥有丰富的石油财富，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，在那里，大约40万阿拉伯居民中有很大一部分，包括许多最近从黎巴嫩和伊拉克逃来的战争难民，忍受着贫困的生活，但需要生殖健康服务。这项研究是第一次审查阿拉伯世界和整个世界日益增长的全球生殖旅游现象。 因此，它将有助于研究的多个领域，包括医学人类学，全球化的人类学，科学和技术研究，性别研究，并在后9月11日，伊拉克战争时代的中东研究。此外，这项研究的实证结果对社会政策非常重要，因为在全球一级越来越多地要求对抗逆转录病毒疗法和生殖旅游进行立法。 这项研究可以深入了解生殖旅游者本身的经历和担忧，从而揭示正在蓬勃发展但仍然笼罩在神秘之中的全球生殖旅游世界。

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.