Reproductive Medicine and Mobility

Denmark is today the world’s biggest exporter of sperm and a hub destination for European single women, lesbian, and heterosexual couples wanting anonymous or known sperm donation. In contrast, clinical success rates, high compensation rates, and a large pool of female donors have made Spain a leading European destination for egg donation. Meanwhile, Eastern European clinics, in the Ukraine and Russia as well as clinics in India, are emergent new destinations, marketing their reproductive services at lower prices while imultaneously emphasizing cutting-edge reproductive technology, consumer choice, and the availability of Northern European phenotypes. The transnational flow in fertility treatments involves an estimated 11,000-14,000 patients that annually cross European nation states, not only producing new families, new babies, and new citizens but also fueling new legal and ethical debates.

How does the trans-European flow in reproductive medicine and reproductive assistance affect European clinical and legal practices on assisted reproduction? How do donors, ethicists, lawmakers, and clinicians respond to these developments? To inquire into these questions, REMM builds upon existing national research projects and develops an international and holistic research platform interrogating the lack of EU harmonization on who and what reproductive assistance EU citizens can receive as well as the experiences of egg donors and the clinical personnel travelling to hub destinations throughout Europe. In the project we pay particular attention to developments within European bioethics/legislation, practices/experiences, and we develop qualitative analyses of fertility and mobility. We collaborate with European partners, private fertility clinics throughout Europe, and emergent economies to explore how reproductive medicine and mobility is staged in various contexts and what role mobility plays not only to individuals but also in larger political and legal processes. Jointly, this research project addresses how reproductive medicine and mobility affect European clinical and legal practices as well as existing European medical and tourism infrastructures. REMM centers the different globallocal crossings of bodies, biological matter, and stories that are produced, reproduced as well as resisted by donors, ethicists, lawmakers, and clinicians.