This research examines the social, cultural, and policy implications of medical migration-briefly defined as the movement of people across national borders for health care-specifically for assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). In recent years, India has emerged as a global hub for this kind of medical travel,in part because of lower costs but also due to minimal regulatory frameworks for the provision of ARTs. This project explores the implications of such travel by asking the questions: How do ART law and policy influence the growth of medical travel to India? How do these transnational medical processes affect notions of kinship, family, gender, and citizenship?
This project considers medical travel for reproductive health care as a critical case study for understanding the procreative process in transnational contexts, as human reproduction increasingly involves collaborating actors in the lab, clinic, travel agency, and courtroom. At the same time, grounded in Mumbai, India, this project provides an important opportunity to examine how policy and legislation relate to the increasing numbers of couples-from the United States and around the world-traveling to India for ARTs. Research will be conducted over a twelve-month period through participant observation, semistructured interviews with the range of actors involved in medical travel to India for assisted reproduction, and analysis of popular representations of so-called "reproductive tourism" and ART policy debates in media and other public sources. By studying the diverse motivations and experiences of key actors involved in reproductive travel, this project aims to contribute to our understanding of assisted reproduction law and policy-in the U.S. and globally-from a social science perspective.
