Abstract
The
article sketches the origins and development of IVF in Ghana as a
highly transnational undertaking. Movements are from and to Africa,
involving human beings (providers and users), and also refer to other
entities such as technologies, skills and knowledge. None of these
movements are paid for using public money, neither are they subsidized
by international health organizations. Currently, ‘more affordable’ IVF
is being introduced into Ghana, on initiative of the first Association
of Childless Couples of Ghana (ACCOG), in collaboration with the Belgium
based non-profit organization the Walking Egg (tWE), representing
another form of transnational networking. The article underlines the
scarcity of well-trained embryologists in Ghana, which turns the
embryologists’ expertise and skills into a scarce and precious commodity
and guarantees this expertise becomes a major challenge for the
directors of the private clinics. Next to local Ghanaian couples, the
clinics also attend to transnational reproductive travellers, including
women and men from neighbouring countries and Ghanaians in the diaspora
returning to their country of origin. Their manifold motivations to
cross borders and visit the IVF clinics in Ghana provide insight into
the structural conditions impeding or facilitating the use of assisted
reproductive technologies at different local sites. Transnational
movements also include the flow of new procreation practices (such as
surrogacy and the use of donor material), which (re-)shape existing
cultural and societal notions regarding kinship and the importance of
blood/genetic ties. Finally, the article lists a number of thematic and
theoretical issues which require further exploration and studies.
Keywords
- embryologists;
- Ghana;
- 'more affordable' IVF;
- third party involvement;
- reproductive technology;
- reproductive travel
