((CSH, EHESS & CEIAS-Paris))

At

IFI-CSH conference room (ground floor)

2 Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi – 110011

Abstract: In December 2021, two new laws aiming at regulating and supervising the thriving medical sector of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) were passed by the Indian Parliament and came into force on January 25, 2022. During my fieldwork in Chandigarh, still in progress, I’m observing how these two laws are gradually entering and impacting the daily practice of different actors working in the ART sector: not only doctors, but also administrative staff, ART banks directors, mediators, gamete donors, patients, and pharmaceutical representatives. Based on the observation of consultations between doctors and patients, interactions among different professional categories, informal discussions between colleagues, and professional meetings, I analyze how the text of the two laws is read, studied, interpreted, discussed, translated, appropriated, and contested. Considering the important role that the new laws attribute to ART banks, my presentation will especially focus on the impact of the two laws on organizations mediating between gamete donors, surrogate women, and ART clinics.

Speaker:

Caterina Guenzi is Associate Professor at the EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) and member of the Centre for South Asian Studies in Paris. She is the author of Words of Destiny: Practicing Astrology in North India (State University of New York Press 2021). In her work, she is interested in the relationship between texts and practice both in contemporary urban North India and in early modern South Asia. Currently, she is carrying out a research project on infertility from a textual based perspective and through extensive fieldwork.

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