Skip to main content

Globalisation and Market Orientation: A Challenge Within Reproductive Medicine

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Surrogacy and Egg Donation

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are a rapidly growing segment of the global health market. Thriving innovation and translation into practice, an increasing use of invasive procedures manipulating gametes, embryos and women’s bodies, increasingly involving third parties for gamete donation or surrogacy, and identification of new target groups are some of the driving factors. Moreover, cross-border fertility services are proliferating along legal and economic asymmetries. Hence, current reproductive health care is at risk of overusing ARTs as response to a perceived increase of infertility and numerous market opportunities. This chapter unfolds some of the ramifications of the ARTs landscape highlighting ‘side’ effects on the health of women and their children born to such arrangements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Argyle, C. E., Harper, J. C., & Davies, M. C. (2016). Oocyte cryopreservation: Where are we now? Human Reproduction Update, 22(4), 440–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bos-Mikich, A., Bressan, F. F., Ruggeri, R. R., Watanabe, Y., & Meirelles, F. V. (2016). Parthenogenesis and human assisted reproduction. Stem Cells International. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1970843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, K., & Schultz, S. (2012). Oocytes for research: Inspecting the commercialization continuum. New Genetics and Society, 31(2), 135–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. (2014, January). Business is booming. Focus on Reproduction, European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), pp. 24–27 [online]. Available at http://www.eshre.eu/~/media/emagic%20files/Publications/Focus/Focus%20Jan14.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2017.

  • Bumgarner, A. (2007). A right to choose? Sex selection in the international context. Duke Journal of Gender, Law & Policy, 14, 1289–1309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Center for Genetics and Society. (2017). Human genetic modification [online]. Available at https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/topics/human-genetic-modification. Accessed 5 Apr 2017.

  • Chambers, G. M., Adamson, G. D., & Eijkemans, J. C. (2013). Acceptable cost for the patient and society. Fertility and Sterility, 100(2), 319–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Council of Europe. (2015). Background document on preimplantation and prenatal genetic testing. Clinical situation, legal situation [online]. Available at https://rm.coe.int/inf-2015-6-dpi-dpn-e/168078bad2. Accessed 14 Apr 2018.

  • DeCherney, A. H., & Barnett, R. L. (2016). In vitro fertilization research is translational research. Reproductive Sciences, 23(12), 1634–1638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Geyter, C., De Geyter, M., Steimann, S., Zhang, H., & Holzgreve, W. (2006). Comparative birth weights of singletons born after assisted reproduction and natural conception in previously infertile women. Human Reproduction, 21(3), 705–712.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Munck, N., Belva, F., Van de Velde, H., Verheyen, G., & Stoop, D. (2016). Closed oocyte vitrification and storage in an oocyte donation programme: Obstetric and neonatal outcome. Human Reproduction, 31(5), 1024–1033.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Sutter, P. (2016, September 23). Children’s rights related to surrogacy. Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, report doc. 14140 [online]. Available at http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=23015&lang=2. Accessed 31 Mar 2017.

  • Divine, J. (2017, July 12). CRISPR stocks: How to invest in a medical miracle [online]. Available at https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2017-07-05/best-crispr-stocks-to-buy. Accessed 3 Sept 2017.

  • Dyer, S., Chambers, G. M., de Mouzon, J., Nygren, K. G., Zegers-Hochschild, F., Mansour, R., et al. (2016). International committee for monitoring assisted reproductive technologies world report: Assisted reproductive technology 2008, 2009 and 2010. Human Reproduction, 31(7), 1588–1609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ESHRE. (2018). ART fact sheet 2018 [online]. Available at https://www.eshre.eu/~/media/sitecore-files/Guidelines/ART-fact-sheet_vFebr18_VG.pdf?la=en. Accessed 14 Apr 2018.

  • European Parliament. (2005). P6 TA(2005)0074, planned egg cell trade, European Parliament resolution on the trade in human egg cells [online]. Available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P6-TA-2005-0074+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN. Accessed 4 Apr 2017.

  • European Parliament. (2015). REPORT on the annual report on human rights and democracy in the world 2014 and the European Union’s policy on the matter (2015/2229(INI) [online]. Available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A8-2015-0344+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN. Accessed 4 Apr 2017.

  • Evers, J. L. H. (2016). Santa claus in the fertility clinic. Human Reproduction, 31(7), 1381–1382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, A., Mac Dougall, S., Kintominas, A., & Olsen, A. (2016). Surrogacy law and policy in the U.S.: A national conversation informed by global lawmaking. Report of the Columbia Law School, Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic [online]. Available at http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2016/june2016/surrogacy-law-report. Accessed 25 Mar 2017.

  • GBD 2015 Maternal Mortality Collaborators. (2016). Global, regional, and national levels of maternal mortality, 1990–2015: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The Lancet, 388(10053), 1775–1812.

    Google Scholar 

  • Global Egg Donors. (2017). Global egg donors provides fully screened egg donors worldwide [online]. Available at https://www.globaleggdonors.com/. Accessed 27 Mar 2017.

  • Grand View Research. (2016). IVF market size projected to reach USD 27 billion by 2022 [online]. Available at http://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-ivf-market. Accessed 12 Mar 2017.

  • Grand View Research. (2017). Sperm bank market analysis by donor type, by service type (sperm storage, semen analysis, genetic consultancy), by technology (donor insemination, in-vitro fertilization), and segment forecasts, 2014–2025 [online]. Available at http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/sperm-bank-market. Accessed 5 Apr 2017.

  • Gruben, V. (2013). Women as patients, not spare parts. Examining the relationship between the physician and women egg providers. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 25(2), 249–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haimes, E. (2013). Juggling on a rollercoaster? Gains, loss and uncertainties in IVF patients’ accounts of volunteering for a U.K. ‘egg sharing for research’ scheme. Social Science and Medicine, 86, 45–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • HCCH, The Hague Conference on Private International Law. (2014). A study of legal parentage and the issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements. General affairs and policy [online]. Available at https://assets.hcch.net/upload/wop/gap2014pd03c_en.pdf. Accessed 25 Mar 2017.

  • Heneghan, C., Spencer, E. A., Bobrovitz, N., Collins, D. R. J., Nunan, D., Plüddemann, A., et al. (2016). Lack of evidence for interventions offered in UK fertility centres. British Medical Journal, 355, i6295. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6295.

  • Hyrapetian, M., Loucaides, E. M., & Sutcliffe, A. G. (2014). Health and disease in children born after assistive reproductive therapies (ART). Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 106, 21–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inhorn, M. (2016). Medical cosmopolitanism in global Dubai: A twenty-first-century transnational intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) depot. Medical Anthorpology Quarterly, 31(1), 5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inhorn, M., & Patrizio, P. (2015). Infertility around the globe: New thinking on gender, reproductive technologies and global movements in the 21st century. Human Reproduction Update, 21(4), 411–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Social Service (ISS). (2016). Call for action 2016: Urgent need for regulation of international surrogacy and artificial reproductive technologies [online]. Available at http://www.iss-ssi.org/index.php/en/what-we-do-en/surrogacy. Accessed 31 Mar 2017.

  • Irshad, A., & Werner-Felmayer, G. (2016). An ethical analysis of assisted reproduction providers’ websites in Pakistan. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 25(3), 497–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, J. (2017, February 14). U.S. panel gives yellow light to human embryo editing. Science (Health Policy) [online]. Available at http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/us-panel-gives-yellow-light-human-embryo-editing. Accessed 5 Apr 2017.

  • Kamphuis, E. I., Bhattacharya, S., van der Veen, F., Templeton, A., & The Evidence Based IVF Group. (2014). Are we overusing IVF? British Medical Journal, 348, 252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleijkers, S. H., van Montfoort, A. P., Smits, L. J., Coonen, E., Derhaag, J. G., Evers, J. L., et al. (2015). Age of G-1 PLUS v5 embryo culture medium is inversely associated with birthweight of the newborn. Human Reproduction, 30(6), 1352–1357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lahl, J. (2017, March 21). Stop this global trading on the female body. The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network [online]. Available at http://www.cbc-network.org/2017/03/jennifer-lahl-at-the-united-nations-stop-this-global-trading-on-the-female-body/. Accessed 5 Apr 2017.

  • Letur, H., Peigné, M., Ohl, J., Cedrin-Durnerin, I., Mathieu-D’Argent, E., Scheffler, F., et al. (2016). Hypertensive pathologies and egg donation pregnancies: Results of a large comparative cohort study. Fertility and Sterility, 106, 284–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowthorpe, L. (2017, June 9). Researchers condemn fertility doctor’s rogue science [online]. Available at https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/biopolitical-times/researchers-condemn-fertility-doctors-rogue-science. Accessed 7 Sept 2017.

  • Mascarenhas, M. N., Flaxman, S. R., Boerma, T., Vanderpoel, S., & Stevens, G. A. (2012). National, regional, and global trends in infertility prevalence since 1990: A systematic analysis of 277 health surveys. PLoS Medicine, 9(12), e1001356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medical Travel Quality Alliance (MTQUA). (2014). Commercial surrogacy tourism [online]. Available at https://www.mtqua.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Commercial-Surrogacy-Tourism.png. Accessed 17 Mar 2017.

  • Mitra, S., & Schicktanz, S. (2016). Failed surrogate conceptions: Social and ethical aspects of preconception disruptions during commercial surrogacy in India. Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, 11(1), 9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisker, J., Baylis, F., Karpin, I., McLeod, C., & Mykitiuk, R. (Eds.). (2010). The ‘healthy’ embryo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ombelet, W. (2016). The twin epidemic in infertility care: Why do we persist in transferring too many embryos? Facts, Views and Vision in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 8(4), 189–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry, B. (2015). Narratives of neoliberalism: ‘Clinical labour’ in context. Medical Humanities, 41, 32–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellati, D., Mylonakis, I., Bertoloni, G., Fiore, C., Andrisani, A., Ambrosini, G., et al. (2008). Genital tract infections and infertility. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 140, 3–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petropanagos, A., Cattapan, A., Baylis, F., & Leader, A. (2015). Social egg freezing: Risk, benefits and other considerations. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(9), 666–669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. (2008). Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Fertility and Sterility, 90(3), 188–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riben, M. (2016, October 14). American surrogate death: NOT the first. The Blog. The Huffington Post [online]. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirah-riben/american-surrogate-death-_b_8298930.html. Accessed 31 Mar 2017.

  • Rigon, A., & Chateau, C. (2016). Regulating international surrogacy arrangements: State of play. European Parliament Briefing [online]. Available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/571368/IPOL_BRI%282016%29571368_EN.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2017.

  • Rothman, B. K. (1989). Recreating motherhood. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumbold, A. R., Moore, V. M., Whitrow, M. J., Oswald, T. K., Moran, L. J., Fernandez, R. C., et al. (2017). The impact of specific fertility treatments on cognitive development in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review. Human Reproduction, 32(7), 1489–1507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarojini, N., & Venkatachalam, K. (2016). Marketing reproduction: Assisted reproductive technologies and commercial surrogacy in India. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 23(1), 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, J., Lahl, J., & Kramer, W. (2017). Long-term breast cancer risk following ovarian stimulation in young egg donors: A call for follow-up, research and informed consent. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 34(5), 480–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, C., & Werner-Felmayer, G. (2012). Patterns of globalized reproduction: Egg cells regulation in Israel and Austria. Israel Journal of Health Policy, 1(15) [online]. Available at https://ijhpr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2045-4015-1-15. Accessed 15 Mar 2017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shenfield, F. (2011). Implementing a good practice guide for CBRC: Perspectives from the ESHRE cross-border reproductive care taskforce. Reproductive Biomedicine Online, 23(5), 657–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spar, D. (2006). The baby business: How money, science and politics drive the commerce of conception. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunde, A., Brison, D., Dumoulin, J., Harper, J., Lundin, K., Magli, M. C., et al. (2016). Time to take human embryo culture seriously. Human Reproduction, 31(10), 2174–2182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • te Velde, E., Habbema, D., Nieschlag, E., Sobotka, T., & Burdorf, A. (2017). Ever growing demand for in vitro fertilization despite stable biological fertility: A European paradox. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 214, 204–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tieu, M. M. (2009). Altruistic surrogacy: The necessary objectification of surrogate mothers. Journal of Medical Ethics, 35, 171–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner-Felmayer, G., & Shalev, C. (2015). Human germline modification: A missing link. American Journal of Bioethics, 15(12), 49–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, A. (2011). Reproduction opportunists in the new global sex trade: PGD and non-medical sex selection. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 23(5), 609–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (2017). Infertility definitions and terminology [online]. Available at http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/infertility/definitions/en/ Accessed 3 Apr 2017.

  • Wolf, D. P., Mitalipov, N., & Mitalipov, S. (2015). Mitochondrial replacement therapy in reproductive medicine. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 21(2), 68–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiong, X., Dickey, R. P., Buekens, P., Shaffer, J. G., & Pridjian, G. (2017). Use of Intracytoplasmic sperm injection and birth outcomes in women conceiving through in vitro fertilization. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 31(2), 108–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zegers-Hochschild, F. Adamson, G. D., de Mouzon, J., Ishihara, O., Mansour, R., Nygren, K., et al. (2009). International Committee for Monitoring Asssisted Reproductive Technology (ICMART) and the World Health Organization (WHO) revised glossary of ART terminology, 2009*. Fertility and Sterility, 92(5), 1520–1524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabriele Werner-Felmayer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Werner-Felmayer, G. (2018). Globalisation and Market Orientation: A Challenge Within Reproductive Medicine. In: Mitra, S., Schicktanz, S., Patel, T. (eds) Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Surrogacy and Egg Donation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78670-4_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78670-4_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78669-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78670-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics