I'm Trying to Create, not Destroy: Protestant Women's Moral Reasoning Surrounding the Use of Arts

• In Event: 136 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Attitudes about Beginning and End-of-life Issues

Abstract

The in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry in the U.S. is largely unregulated. Hundreds of thousands of embryos are frozen in storage facilitates; many are also discarded or do not survive the IVF process. Conservative Protestants and the Catholic Church have been vocal about protecting the embryo in their opposition to abortion, but aside from opposing embryonic stem cell research, the former have largely supported the use of IVF. The destruction of embryos in the pursuit of biological parenthood creates potential dilemmas for those who seek treatments. This paper examines how infertile Protestant women reconcile their pursuit of technologies that both create and destroy embryos. I show that the women's moral reasoning is an unfolding process that varies depending on the temporal, relational, and contextual dimensions of their infertility trajectory: some do not recognize a dilemma; many justify the destruction of embryos by explaining that their intentions are to create rather than destroy; emotional attachments to the embryo vary over time and by its location; and loss is not understood as a result of a woman's actions, but as the result of divine intention or natural processes. Attributing infertility to God's plan can protect women from blame and feelings of inadequacy when experiencing infertility. While the women in this study attach varied meanings to the embryo, they simultaneously work to construct themselves as women deserving of motherhood. In doing so, the moral economy of motherhood is realized and reproduced: the making of deserving and undeserving women.

Author

• Danielle Czarnecki, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN