“The Politics of Reproduction: New Technologies of Life,”

The following is information about an upcoming conference that the Barnard Center for Research on Women is hosting on February 28.

The conference, entitled “The Politics of Reproduction: New Technologies of Life,” will take up many of the questions that surround the increasing use of assisted reproductive technologies and adoption to build families. Propelled by changes in familial form, such as lesbian, gay, and transgendered parents and families; delays in childbearing; and childrearing in second or third marriages, the use of ART and transnational adoption is growing, and so are the questions that accompany the use of these new ways of creating families. For instance, do these new technologies place women and children at risk? How should we respond ethically to the ability of these technologies to test for genetic illnesses? How can we ensure that marginalized individuals, for example, people with disabilities, women of color, and low-income women, have equal access to these new technologies and adoption practices? And, similarly, how do we ensure that transnational surrogacy and adoption practices are not exploitative?

A full list of participants and registration information can be found on this website: http://www.barnard.edu/bcrw/scholarandfeminist/2009/index.htm.