This edited volume by N. Sarojini and Vrinda Marwah brings out a comprehensive understanding of the political economy of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). The debate on ART shows a very complex picture; on the one side, marketed as pro-women technology— often projecting it as helping women to fulfill their desire to be mothers—it also invokes questions of violence and control on women’s bodies, on the other. Any discussions on ART would navigate through this complex and paradoxical set of realities where women’s bodies are the sites for various negotiations with market, medical technologies, and ideologies.
Betsy Hartmann raises certain fundamental questions of ART and argues for a feminist politics to engage with the market. Hartmann’s essay takes us through the paradox of ART—both bio-deterministic and expansive and brings out the intersections of gender, inequality and sexuality. This chapter touches upon various questions but do not dwell much on it. That, perhaps, would be the limitations of an edited volume on such a complex issue. Sarah Sexton’s essay engages with bio-economy. She compares ART and biogenetics with speculative market economy. The ART industry gambles with human needs and desires, like speculative capital, without necessarily fulfilling the needs of individuals. Sexton’s constant comparison with global financial market exposes the dangers of reproductive tourism under the close monitoring of neo-liberalism.