Privacy, privatization, and the politics of patronage: ethnographic challenges to penetrating the secret world of Middle Eastern, hospital-based in vitro fertilization

In recent years, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has spread around the globe, including to the Middle East. Privacy, privatization, and the politics of patronage are all key issues affecting anthropological research in Middle Eastern hospital-based IVF clinics. IVF-seeking patients generally desire pri...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Social science & medicine (1982) Jg. 59; H. 10; S. 2095 - 2108
1. Verfasser: Inhorn, Marcia C.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2004
Elsevier
Schriftenreihe:Social Science & Medicine
Schlagworte:
Anthropology, Cultural
Egypt
Ethnography
Female
Fertility
Fertilization in Vitro - ethics
Fertilization in Vitro - history
Health
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Hospitals
Hospitals, Private
Hospitals, Public
Hospitals, University
Humans
In vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilization Privatization Informed consent Hospitals Ethnography Middle East
Informed Consent
Informed Consent - ethics
Lebanon
Male
Medicine
Middle East
Organizational Culture
Outpatient Clinics, Hospital - ethics
Outpatient Clinics, Hospital - history
Outpatient Clinics, Hospital - organization & administration
Politics
Privacy
Privatization
Research Ethics
Research Subjects
Social Anthropology
Social sciences
Sociology, Medical
Lebanon
Middle East
Egypt
In vitro fertilization
Middle East
Ethnography
Informed consent
Hospitals
Privatization
ISSN:0277-9536, 1873-5347
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:In recent years, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has spread around the globe, including to the Middle East. Privacy, privatization, and the politics of patronage are all key issues affecting anthropological research in Middle Eastern hospital-based IVF clinics. IVF-seeking patients generally desire privacy, even total secrecy, when pursuing these treatments, due to cultural issues of stigmatization, particularly regarding male infertility. Thus, ethical issues surrounding the informed consent process are of prime importance. Furthermore, privatization of medical services in the Middle East has left patients—and anthropologists—with few choices other than private IVF clinic settings in which to pursue treatment and research. Both the ethos of patient privacy and medical privatization affect the ability of anthropologists to “penetrate” the secret world of IVF. Permission to conduct ethnography in private hospital IVF clinics may be difficult to obtain without the help of highly motivated physician patrons, who are willing to recruit their private IVF patients for ethnographic interviewing. This article provides a personal account of some of these challenges as faced by a medical anthropologist during a 15-year career of hospital-based IVF research in the Middle East.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.03.012