Introduction: The Body and the Globe

Authors

Vera Mackie, University of WollongongFollow
Nicola J. Marks, University of WollongongFollow
Sarah Ferber, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

137604

Publication Details

Mackie, V., Marks, N. J. & Ferber, S. (2019). Introduction: The Body and the Globe. In V. Mackie, N. J. Marks & S. Ferber (Eds.), The Reproductive Industry: Intimate Experiences and Global Processes (pp. 1-13). Lanham: Lexington Books.

Abstract

Stories of assisted reproduction from around the world are ubiquitous in the mass media.1 In March 2013, a Chinese couple, Shen Jie and Liu Xi, were killed in a car crash, five days before they were due to have embryos implanted through in vitro fertilization (IVF). After a legal battle, both sets of parents of the deceased couple were able to access the frozen embryos stored in a hospital in Nanjing. Through a surrogacy agency, two embryos were implanted into the womb of a Lao woman who traveled to China on a tourist visa and gave birth to a baby boy, four years after the death of the intended parents. The grandparents are now raising the child (Ramzy 2018).