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Dr Rebecca Marsland
Social Anthropology
School of Social and Political Sciences
University of Edinburgh
Chrystal Macmillan Building
15a George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LT

0131 651 3864
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

http://edinburghmedicalanthropology.wordpress.com/

MSc Medical Anthropology
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/pgtma

MSc R Medical Anthropology
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/pgrma




Begin forwarded message:

From: Frederic Le Marcis <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Call for paper Symposium on Medically Assisted Procreation in Paris (december 2013)
Date: 5 July 2013 16:09:11 BST
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>

Hello,
Do you mind posting this call for paper on Anthropology Matters?
Many thanks
Frederic Le Marcis

*PROCREATION TECHNOLOGIES AT THE SOUTH. **DISPOSITIFS, KNOWLEDGES,
EXPERIENCES*

Thursday, December 12, 2013 - Friday, December 13, 2013

Université Paris Descartes

Amphithéâtre Vulpian

12 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine – 75006 – Paris – France

* *

*Introduction of the symposium*

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a biomedical procedure which
requires a social, cultural and technical background to function, while
also being a source of knowledge, technical know-how and specific
organisational patterns. The development of ART in sub-Saharan Africa since
the 1980s has not been much the subject of attention from scientific
circles and media.  It is beneficial to consider its history to better
weigh the conditions involved in the dissemination and appropriation of
this technological and social innovation by those involved at social level
(fertility physicians, biologists, patients, religious stakeholders). Using
biotechnologies in fertility is also indicative of a reproduction model
relying on the notion of wanting a child, a model supported by the middle
class in contemporary Africa in a wider picture of reproductive health and
women’s rights (empowerment of women in controlling their body, access to
contraceptives, non-clandestine abortion and to health facilities caring
for infertile couples). However, ART also brings to light inequalities of
class, gender and race (as in South Africa), and in accessing information.
To date, reproductive healthcare services are available in private clinics
only, even if hospital physicians try to create *low cost *care facilities.
Patients of these institutions represent the emerging middle class seeking
health care of a quality that requires becoming part of international
networks where new health care facilities are being set up. Hence, in
seeking ART treatment, their overall relationship to health and medical
information has changed. In this context, some of them are willing to
travel across Africa or even to Europe, turning to reproductive health
departments in the Paris area, while the French medico-legal prerequisites
for migrant women born in sub-Saharan Africa and living in Europe are felt
to be far too stringent (age limit, anonymous oocyte donation). In this
case, the notion of biosociality is relevant, not so much to refer to
mobilisation fields based on the common experience of a disease (as in the
case of patients’ associations) but rather to capture the individual
experiences of people who share a common experience of childbearing,
mediated by science and dependent on political power.

The contributions to this conference also aim to reporting on “folk
representations” of procreation. Does ART change the symbolic dimension of
procreation and birth (role of ancestors and bush-spirits)? Are we
confronted with a break from tradition, or is there a linking up at play to
local traditional knowledge, especially that of witchcraft which has a
unique part in the interpretation of infertility within family
relationships? In these kinds of social and cultural backgrounds, women are
always blamed whereas their husbands, if infertile, are protected by all
social stakeholders, if not by their wives themselves in some cases. When
resorting to ART, do men overcome their reluctance to admit their
infertility, especially once it has been diagnosed? Are they willing to
liberate themselves from a linage representation of fertility (and hence,
of procreation) and to accept a rearrangement of transmission patterns in
society and in men-women relationships?



We welcome proposals about infertility care in sub-Saharan Africa in the
context of ART from diverse disciplines (anthropology, sociology, history,
law,…). The subjects we are interested in are (non exhaustive):

·        History and logics of ART Development on the continent.

·        Experience of ART and infertility

·        Technologies and Personhood: negotiation and articulation of
knowledge and practices around ART

·        ART, a biosocial experiment?

·        Recognition of infertility and legitimacy of Women infertility in
Africa



Please send a ten lines abstract (in English or in French) before the
10thof September 2013 to:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Acceptance will be notified from the 10th of October.



The conference will be held in University Paris-Descartes (Paris 5) in
French and English on the 12th and 13th of December 2013. No funds are
available for travelling expenses.



The scientific committee:

*Michel Cot, *Médecin épidémiologiste  à l'IRD.

*Viola Hörbst, *Anthropologue, Lecturer at the Institute for Social
Anthropology and African Studies at University of Munich (Germany).

*Odile Journet, *Directrice de Recherches en anthropologie, CNRS.

*Madjid Ihadjadene**, *Professeur en Sciences de l'information et de la
communication, U. Paris 8,

*Enric Porqueres, *Directeur d’études en anthropologie de la parenté, EHESS.

*Irène Théry, *Directrice de Recherches en sociologie du droit et de la
famille, EHESS.

-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.


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