Transnational biopolitics and family-making in secrecy : an ethnography of reproductive travel from Turkey to Northern Cyprus

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of reproductive travel between Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Based on interviews and observations primarily carried out in a private In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic in Northern Cyprus, between November 2014 and January 2016, it investigates how and why Turkish couples travel to the Turkish-speaking part of the island of Cyprus to access biomedical reproductive services - namely, donor gametes and sex selection through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis - that are legally unavailable in Turkey. By combining anthropology of secrecy with feminist studies of assisted reproductive technologies, this dissertation argues that Turkey's ban on gamete donation has helped to normalize IVF in the country by reinforcing the heteronormative nuclear family ideal: that is, if gamete donation is unavailable to Turkish people, then married couples who conceive using IVF are presumed to be genetically related to their children.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Mutlu, Burcu,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Heather Paxson.

• Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122491

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122491