ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the analysis of mass media publications, and investigates the discursive strategies, which engage the figure of the in vitro fertilization (IVF)-conceived child. It explores how they are used to present IVF children as 'monsters' or 'innocent babies' in order to express the anxieties and the promises of modern changes in Polish society. These two figures reflect the two major rhetorics described by Mulkay; one based on hope, and the other based on fear. The chapter presents a part of a wider research project entitled New Reproductive Technologies: The Perspective of Childhood Studies. It offers an anthropological perspective drawing on qualitative methods, primarily discourse analysis of the media debate on IVF. The chapter examines articles in newspapers and magazines, Internet forums, TV programs, and other publications pertaining to infertility, as well as materials provided by the agents involved, such as fertility clinics or patients' organizations.
