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Dana-Ain Davis the POLITICS of REPRODUCTION:THE TROUBLING CASE of NADYA SULEMAN and ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY

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Dana-Ain Davis the POLITICS of REPRODUCTION:THE TROUBLING CASE of NADYA SULEMAN and ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY Dana-Ain Davis THE POLITICS OF REPRODUCTION:THE TROUBLING CASE OF NADYA SULEMAN AND ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY On January 26, 2009, Nadya Suleman gave birth to mother and the children were doing wellFdespite the nation’s second set of octuplets. Over the course of the infants being two and a half months premature. 30 days Ms. Suleman became the subject of outrage Initially the story possessed all the elements of a and outrageous representations over her choice to have mediagenic success, possibly whetting the public’s in vitro fertilization since she already had six children. appetite for distraction from the worldwide eco- Embedded in Suleman’s public construction and rep- nomic downturn including the plummeting stock resentations are subtle transcripts of race, class, and market, massive job loss, and increased home fore- reproduction. This article examines these intersections closures. Since during hard times diversions are as they relate to stratified reproduction, neoliberal re- sometimes necessary, the birth took center stage. It ification of choice in the reproductive marketplace and seemed that what interested most people was: Who the silence of mainstream reproductive rights groups in were the parents of these children? challenging the discourse surrounding Suleman. This Riveted by the story, over the course of 29 days discourse is similar to that which has historically been Ffrom January 26 to February 24, I followed blogs, used to justify restricting the reproductive trajectories newspaper articles and television news coverage;1 of women of color, poor and low-income women. my interest fueled by friends who e-mailed articles KEYWORDS: assisted reproductive technology, they thought I might have overlooked. In unpacking reproductive justice, stratified reproduction, women of the story I found that the blogging public viewed the color, neoliberalism, Nadya Suleman event as a joyous miracle. Simultaneously, medical and bioethical professionals’ appearance on news programs tempered the public’s elation by conjec- The USA’s first set of octuplets was born in Hous- turing how Suleman became pregnant. Embryolo- ton, Texas, in December 1998 to Nkem and Iyke gists thought it unlikely that the octuplets were the Chukwu. The Nigerian-born couple, who were US result of natural conception, but rather the product citizens, had used fertility drugs to achieve the preg- of assisted reproductive technology (ART). The nancy, and all but one of the children survived range of ART options that might have been used (Lyman, 1998). Just as with the Chukwu octuplets, included in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intrauterine the global media trumpeted the arrival of another insemination (IUI), with partner or donor sperm.2 As high-order multiple birth on January 26, 2009, when answers to various questions unfolded, there was a Nadya Suleman gave birth to the nation’s second rising tide of sentiment against Suleman, and as the set of octuplets in Bellflower, California, at Kaiser din of chastisement grew louder, I began to wonder Permanente Hospital. Following the delivery the why so few mainstream reproductive rights groups weighed in on the discussions.3 My interest was pi- qued since Suleman’s utilization of ART quite clearly Dana-Ain Davis is an Associate Professor of Urban reflects the reproductive rights movement’s goals of Studies at Queens College and Associate Chair of access and choice. But there was more to this story Worker Education. She is the author of Battered than meets the eye. Although there was a seeming Black Women and Welfare Reform: Between a Rock absence of race and class making in the story’s media and a Hard Place (SUNY Press 2006) and a con- representation, I want to argue that a race and class tributor to the recently published book, Beyond vernacular lay just beneath the surface of rhetoric Reproduction: Women’s Health, Activism, and Public that claimed to be about morality and self-regulation. Policy by Karen L. Baird (Fairleigh Dickinson Uni- My goal is to make sense of the messy represen- versity Press 2008). tation of Nadya Suleman in thinking about issues of Transforming Anthropology, Vol. 17, Number 2, pp. 105–116, ISSN 1051-0559, electronic ISSN 1548-7466. & 2009 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-7466.2009.01061.x. 105 race, class, marital status, family formation, and the Among the health-related concerns, according idea of choice within the realm of reproductive poli- to Chavkin (2009), are the unclear implications on tics. Therefore this article draws on the public the neurocognitive development of children born of discourse around Ms. Suleman and her use of ART these technologies. Another is the uncertain conse- to situate several concerns about the politics of re- quences of multiple and high-order multiple births production. The first concern reiterates scholarly (more than two) on women since health risks may and activist critiques of the ways in which reproduc- include increased cardiovascular risks and chal- tive stratification is asserted through ART. In lenges on the respiratory system. With regard to interrogating this aspect of the story I uncover subtle equity issues a major question that ART raises is its systems of racialization and classism in the biased inaccessibility to all women given the often-high representations of Ms. Suleman and her reproduc- costs that can run into and beyond tens of thousands tive choice. The second issue I explore is what I view of dollars. And finally, there are regulatory issues. as the perversity of neoliberal reification of con- Comparatively, Europe regulates ART to a far sumption when it sits in the realm of reproductive greater degree than the USA. For example surrogacy choice. Then, in light of those two issues, I use Sule- is illegal in most of Europe. Additionally, in Europe man’s story to trouble the implications of her choice IVF is limited to the implantation of two embryos. as this choice relates to the broader reproductive While ART guidelines have been developed by the concerns of women of color, low-income women, fertility industry in the USA, it is not illegal to not and others whose reproduction is organized hierar- follow the standards. Consequently some have called chically in relation to White heterosexual women this lack of regulatory oversight the ‘‘Wild West’’4 of and those who can afford to pay for health services. assisted reproduction (Spar 2009). It is within the context of this last concern that I Not surprisingly the phrase Wild West in many examine Ms. Suleman’s lack of support from main- ways illustrates the startlingly biased representations stream reproductive rights organizations. of Ms. Suleman that circulated. The media, blogging public, and fertility professionals used Ms. Suleman THE LANDSCAPE OF ART to police reproductive boundaries similarly to how An extensive discussion of the impact of ART is marginalized women have been scrutinized, at al- beyond the scope of this essay, but let me briefly most every stage of their reproductive lives. The highlight some of the issues these technologies raise ways in which Suleman was cast, as unfit, and the before settling into my overall discussion. From the possible policies that may be implemented as a con- low-tech strategies of artificial insemination (using sequence reflects a striking resemblance to the racial turkey basters) to surrogate mothers as the solution and class discourses controlling the ‘‘untamed’’ re- for mostly White middle-class infertility, the breadth production of marginalized or unqualified women in of the reproductive technology landscape has prolif- the past. Going back to 1939, for example, the Birth erated over the last 30 years. The technologies hold Control Federation developed the Negro Project, both promise and challenge as their implications are which sought to restrain Black women’s fertility and being critiqued in global and domestic contexts. On childbearing based on the racist assumption that the global front as women’s infertility rises, there is ‘‘Negroes’’ might outpopulate Whites. Moreover, it the concomitant rise of consumptive motherhood, was argued that control was necessary to prevent dramatically articulated in the transnational adop- those less intelligent and less fit from having and tion market (Taylor et al. 2004), through the utiliza- rearing children (Ross 1993). Clearly fecundity con- tion of fertility technology (Braff 2009), as well as in tinues to echo earlier tensions at the intersection the sphere of transnational surrogacy (Vora 2009). of race, class and reproduction. Paradoxically that Domestically analyses of ART encompasses, among angst, deepened by ART, encompasses both the fer- other issues, ethics, health-related concerns, equita- tility and infertility of Black and other women of ble access, and regulatory matters. From an ethical color, poor and single women. This point is clarified standpoint one central focus is to assess the meaning by such comments as one made by Spar (2009) who of life when money is involved in its creation (Spar wrote, ‘‘as reproductive technologies continue to ex- 2006). As ART has developed into an industry many pand, they are bringing us options that push the scholars have centered their work on the sometimes notion of personal choice to terrifying limits. Do we problematic role that biotechnologies play in facili- really want single, unemployed mothers of six (or tating the exchange and consumption of human anyone, really) to produce eight more babies?’’ (1). tissues, organs, and biological information (see, e.g., There is a profound incoherence concerning Franklin and Lock 2003). reproductive technology and its relatedness to race 106 TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 17(2) illustrated in the 1999 Fasano-Rogers case, aptly sexuality, and reproduction. Thus, the lens through described by Robyn Wiegman (2002). This case ex- which I consider the meaning of Suleman’s repre- emplifies a twist on the racial complexities of ART. sentation is based on familiarity with the distinction Wiegman discusses the dramatic story in which two between mainstream reproductive rights and repro- women; one White and the other Black underwent ductive justice.
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