Bridging Ethics and Cross-Border Reproduction Technology Through Transnational Health Governance? A Materialist Feminism and Philosophical Reflection

Abstract

To what extent can innovative reproductive technology contribute to meeting the needs of intended parents and to address women’s health and care issues in different milieus? This paper adopts a combined critical materialist feminism and philosophical perspective and examines the discourses and policy developments found in the cross-border assisted reproduction technology (ART), the US’s and the World Bank’s development and family planning policy in Africa. The paper argues for re-framing an ontological and epistemological space of ‘the political’ which can provide a robust ethical basis for accommodating diverse conflicting requirements and setting rules in a transnational shared health governance.