Rayna Rapp is a professor of anthropology and a medical anthropologist at New York University. She is a leader in the
study of the impact of new reproductive technologies, genetics testing, and genomic medicine on women and society at large. In her
presentation, Rapp explores how new genetics knowledge is created and used when a gene is found.
In her role as cultural anthropologist, Rapp sees herself as illuminating the complications involved with reproductive
health issues "once we look at the health aspirations, the technologies that have been so ably presented here, the problems, the
programs, and the possibilities that reproductive technology gives people." Her research concerns new reproductive technology, genetic
testing, and claims for genomic medicine.
"Initial feminist responses to the NRTs (new reproductive technologies) more than two decades ago focused on issues of
women's rights in the face of male-centered medical and legal control," says Rapp. Some feminists opposed this new step in the
medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth, but others saw it as good for women to have more options and for us to engage with the
emerging science of reproduction. "But we also quickly learned that the issues facing women involve not only problems of gender
subordination and eugenic discrimination, but also relations of reproduction stratified across racial , ethnic, class, national, and
religious lines," says Rapp.
While some groups of women are highly medicalized, 20,000 women a year give birth in New York City hospitals having
received no prenatal care. "This is stratified reproduction: a boutique of highly disciplined invasive services for some groups of women
who might ardently desire them and have access to the ability to cover the payments for them, while the basic reproductive health needs
of the other women remain despised or unattended." For some women, reproduction is scorned or even impeded. For instance, despite the
greater infertility rate of African American women, they participate less often in fertility programs. We must also consider issues of
cross-national boundaries, disability attitudes, and cultural context when assessing these technologies.
Rapp asks how we can produce a woman-centered call for regulation that takes into account the range of women's
experiences with reproduction. "Our collective work involves the expression of women's diverse needs, aspirations, and reproductive
health desires, and I want to stress that that's an international system" which should be addressed across boundaries. In conclusion,
Rayna Rapp reminds us that we "already have the technology to save many, many lives. What we don't have are the resources, the will, and
the political and social organization to deliver that message."
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