ABSTRACT

Feminists have long contended that men’s control of women’s reproduction has been crucial to men’s oppression of women, individually and as a class. Feminists continue to be deeply divided over the value of the new reproductive technologies in women’s lives. Traditional ethical theories might find more support among feminists if such models were to particularize and politicize women’s reproductive lives. Many feminists recommend that women inform themselves of the many alternatives to vitro fertilization (IVF) motherhood, from homeopathic care to foster care, so that women are not caught in a cycle of debilitation and dashed hopes. A feminist ethics that is based on the dialectical relationship between gender and reproduction outlined can offer specific guidelines to IVF clinicians and researchers. The feminist ethics of reproduction outlined also locates women’s IVF experience within the larger social context of the reproductive exploitation and manipulation of women.