The Victimizing Discourse Sex-Determination Technologies and Policy

Abstract

Rapid advancements in medical technologies in recent years have opened the road to wide-ranging interventions in the sphere of reproduction. Significant among the technologies which facilitate such interventions and thereby
manipulation of reproductive functions are those of artificial insemination, in- vitro fertilization, pre-natal diagnostics, embryo transfer etc. Most of these technologies are known to have the potential for adverse side effects for women who are supposedly offered their benefits. Some of these are also feared to involve unknown risks for their users. Their implications for social relations are also likely to be very disturbing; and their proneness to being misused too appears to be quite high in many socio-political contexts. Yet shockingly enough, many of these technologies appear to have received wide acceptance among people who have often opted to use them even at considerable expense.