Introduction: Reproductive Citizenship and Meanings of Infertility

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technologies provide alternative pathways to parenthood for people who experience medical or social infertility. Yet despite the increasing availability of these technologies in many localities and regions, and the rise of new and diverse family formations, the process of accessing fertility treatment and reproductive services remains stratified: some groups are encouraged to reproduce, whereas the reproduction of individuals and couples who do not fit normative criteria is often compromised or denied. This stratification has implications for reproductive citizenship and the right to reproductive liberty and freedom. In this introductory chapter, Rhonda M. Shaw questions the commonplace distinction between medical and social infertility in relation to factors influencing equity of access to assisted reproduction and publicly funded fertility treatment. Shaw suggests the term structural infertility better explains the experience of reproductive vulnerability as a system of privilege created by institutions (e.g. healthcare, law, government policy, media, families), discourses, and social practices that prevent some individuals and groups from accessing and obtaining the resources needed to realise their goal of reproductive citizenship.