Normalising IVF: Negotiating Nature and Technology

Abstract

The concept of reproductive technology embodies a tension between that which is constructed as supremely natural (reproduction) and that which is rational and progressive (technology). As described in the introductory chapter, this tension finds an uneasy resolution in the notion of ‘giving nature a helping hand’ as long as the final outcome is a baby. The gametes, the end product and the desire for a child are still understood as ‘natural’, and the use of technology to facilitate this outcome is rendered invisible once the child is born, since there is nothing to mark an IVF baby out from any other. However, this resolution is extremely fragile, and unsuccessful IVF confronts the women and couples who make use of it with a general unease about the use of technology for reproduction, both in themselves and in others. This chapter will consider the ways in which the tension between nature and technology is negotiated in the participants’ accounts and, in particular, how claims to normality are formulated in relation to discourses of nature and technology.