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Patient-Centred IVF

Patient-Centred IVF

Trudie Gerrits

(2016)

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Book Details

Abstract

Contemporary Dutch policy and legislation facilitate the use of high quality, accessible and affordable assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to all citizens in need of them, while at the same time setting some strict boundaries on their use in daily clinical practices. Through the ethnographic study of a single clinic in this national context, Patient-Centred IVF examines how this particular form of medicine, aiming to empower its patients, co-shapes the experiences, views and decisions of those using these technologies. Gerrits contends that to understand the use of reproductive technologies in practice and the complexity of processes of medicalization, we need to go beyond ‘easy assumptions’ about the hegemony of biomedicine and the expected impact of patient-centredness.


“The ethnographic perspective of the book offers a valuable insight into the limitations that patient-centred approaches offer to solving the issues of medicalization in the context of ART. What is more, the book provides a close look into the daily work of health care providers, which is extremely valuable as it offers a careful analysis of health care providers’ interactions with patients, including mundane details often left outside of the analytical gaze.” • Medicine Anthropology Theory

“The social scientific study of reproduction is a growing field and scholars in that field will welcome a book on ART in the Dutch context as do a wide range of scholars and general readers interested in either feminism, gender, or health care. Physicians and other medical professionals will be interested in this work due to its clear implications for practice.” • Arthur L. Greil, Alfred University


Trudie Gerrits is Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands, where she is co-director of the Masters in Medical Anthropology and Sociology (MAS).


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
PATIENT-CENTRED IVF iii
Contents v
Acknowledgements viii
Tables and Boxes xi
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Studying ARTs 13
Chapter 2 ‘Dutch IVF’ 51
Chapter 3 The Couples and their Quest for a Child 77
Chapter 4 Daily Practices in the Patient-Centred Clinic 116
Chapter 5 Information and Interpretation 153
Chapter 6 The Body and Visualizing Technologies 197
Chapter 7 Gendered Suffering and Support 245
Chapter 8 Bioethics in Practice 287
Conclusion 315
Appendix 1: Methods 330
Appendix 2: Tables 344
Glossary 347
Index 351