![]() |
iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
Index | Paper sessions timetable | Lunch and evening timetable | Main site |
This paper investigates how the sociotechnical network of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) has shape and reshape the gender regime for the past 25 years in Taiwan. Data for this study include archives, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. I first examine the social process of how certain social groups, including singles and lesbians, have been excluded from the access of assisted reproductive technology through governmental regulation. Although the Ethical Guideline on ART of 1986 specified that only married couples were the legitimate users, the debate over whether single women should be included continued for more than two decades. Various social actors -- legislators, bioethics scholars, law experts, medical doctors, Taiwanese Society for Reproductive Medicine, and feminist groups – have negotiated in the public space of deliberation to maintain or reshape the gender order and ART regulation. These social groups configure women differently and mobilize diverse gender discourse for contention. While in the legal arena, the official regulation continues limiting the access of ART to married heterosexual couples, including the recent Human Reproduction Law of 2007, single women, lesbians and gays have formed their own sociotechnical network to fulfill their reproductive needs. Doctors, brokers, celebrities, feminist organizations, and lesbian activists participate in the network building with diverse or even conflicting interests. I thus argue that although the stratified biomedical citizenship excludes gendered marginals, reproductive innovation and new reproductive subjects are achieved through a much invisible but dynamic coordination among different social worlds.