Reproductive Tourism: Through the Anthropological “Reproscope”

Abstract

This review analyzes the emerging literature on reproductive tourism through a metaphorical “reproscope,” focusing largely on cross-border egg donation and surrogacy as the prime areas of contemporary anthropological investigation. While acknowledging that reproductive travel is not new, this article recognizes that there has been an increased volume of such travel over the past couple of decades. It provides an overview of the major areas of anthropological investigation into these transnational phenomena, globalization, stratification, exploitation, race, nationalism, religion, biopower, and bioethics. I propose that these areas of investigation may provide key indications about the preoccupations of anthropology today. Namely, what kind of discipline does anthropology imagine itself to be?