Unwanted Childlessness and NRTs in Italy: Biology and Sociality in a Political and Infra-political Struggle

Abstract

Lesmo, Ilaria. (2013). Unwanted Childlessness and NRTs in Italy: Biology and Sociality in A Political and Infra-political Struggle. Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund, nr. 19, This article explores the way in which people with unwanted childlessness who are undergoing the New Reproductive Technologies (NRTs) interpret and experience such technologies and their own affliction after the approval of Law 40/2004 (the first Italian law rulingNRTs ' usage First of all, the work analyses how people with unwanted childlessness interpreted their own affliction, as well as Law 40/2004, and how they related them to some socio-cultural processes. As the paper will show, the concepts of "embodiment" and "structural violence" are useful analytical tools in order to show how the subjective experiences and the socio-cultural context have reciprocally shaped one another.In the second place, the article examines the practices performed by subjects with unwanted childlessness undergoing NRTs. These people have usually accused the groups in power of limiting the reproductive chances of people already suffering from reproductive limitation. In reaction to this situation, they carried out some creative strategies. The concept of "infrapolitics" is pivotal in order to understand such strategies, which allowed these people to exert their own agency within an arena of reproductive constraints. Particularly, the manipulation and the resemantization of some technologies result to be very important in their at- Mainly, the subjects were affected by conditions categorized by different biomedical diagnoses (a): Idiopathic infertility was diagnosed in three cases, bilateral tubal obstruction in one case, early menopause in one case, and secretory azoospermia in one case.These people also underwent different therapeutic paths (b): Fabiana had some intrauterine inseminations (IUI), before trying two cycles of in vitro fertilizations (IVF). She turned to two different clinics, but she never cryopreserved embryos.She gave birth to twins after the second attempt. Luisa was pregnant after her first in vitro fertilization, when she had a daughter. She could have cryopreserved 30Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund, nr. 19, 27-53 many embryos, since at that time Law 40/2004 had not been approved yet. After a few years, she decided to undergo an embryos implantation and she gave birth to twins. Elisa became the mother of a set of triplets at her second in vitro fertilisation. Also in this case, many embryos could have been cryopreserved. Sabina tried IUI many times, always ineffectively. Some years later, she entered a new clinic where a doctor suggested her in vitro fertilization. Sabrina was pregnant at the third attempt and she gave birth to twins. Bruna, and Anna and Giovanni had to undergo a donation of gametes. Since the law (which had already been approved) banned this practice, they had to go abroad. Bruna was pregnant at her first embryos implantation, while Anna and Giovanni had to wait three in vitro fertiliszations with...