Main description:

The Biotechnology Act in Norway, one of the most restrictive in Europe, forbids egg donation and surrogacy and has rescinded the anonymity clause with respect to donor insemination. Thus, it limits people's choice as to how they can procreate within the boundaries of the nation state. The author pursues this significant datum ethnographically and addresses the issues surrounding contemporary biopolitics in Norway. This involves investigating such fundamental questions as the relation between individual and society, meanings of kinship and relatedness, the moral status of the embryo and the role of science, religion and ethics in state policies. Even though the book takes reproductive technologies as its focus, it reveals much about vital processes that are central to contemporary Norwegian society.

Contents:

Preface and acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Framing the issues

Introduction

Kinship - a new beginning?

Some other issues

Law/imagination

The involuntary childless

Some reflections on the precautionary principle and a bit more

The state of Norway and the notion of equality

Chapter 2. Children of one's own

A first encounter

Having an own child

An issue of sameness

An own child - a first approximation

To try everything; to tell or not to tell

What makes a child your own?

Drawing together

Chapter 3. Better safe than sorry

Uncomfortable relations

Legislative process: acts and revisions

Artificial insemination by donor - pro et contra

Bringing the past to the present

The making of a law

The first revision - 1994

Second and third revisions: 2003 and 2007

In sum

Chapter 4. The inviolability of motherhood

Establishing parenthood

Of eggs and sper

Mater semper certa est

Disruptive effects

Pater vero? Turning the tables

By way of conclusion

Chapter 5. The sorting society: knowledge, selection, ethics

Reproductive choice

The sorting society

A parliamentary incident

Looking back: a few comments on eugenics

The law and the Church

Ethical dilemmas/ethical publicity

Some final remarks

Chapter 6. Concluding reflections - and a Postscript

Global reach - local appropriation

Facts and values

Controversies - contested sites

Post script - legal (un)certainties

Chapter 7. Some notes on methodology

References

Public documents cited or consulted