PMID: 16612995Apr 15, 2006Paper

"He won't be my son": Middle Eastern Muslim men's discourses of adoption and gamete donation

Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Marcia C Inhorn

Abstract

In the Sunni Muslim world, religious mandates prohibit both adoption and gamete donation as solutions to infertility, including in the aftermath of in vitro fertilization (IVF) failures. However, both of these options are now available in two Middle Eastern countries with significant Shi'ite Muslim populations (Iran and Lebanon). On the basis of fieldwork in multisectarian Lebanon, I examine in this article attitudes toward both adoption and gamete donation among childless Muslim men who are undertaking IVF with their wives. No matter the religious sect, most Muslim men in Lebanon continue to resist both adoption and gamete donation, arguing that such a child "won't be my son". However, against all odds, some Muslim men are considering and undertaking these alternatives to family formation as ways to preserve their loving marriages, satisfy their fatherhood desires, and challenge religious dictates, which they view as out of step with new developments in science and technology. Thus, in this article I examine the complicated intersections of religion, technology, marriage, and parenthood in a part of the world that is both poorly understood and negatively stereotyped, particularly in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

References

Oct 1, 1995·Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics·G I SerourR T Mansour
Mar 1, 1997·Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics·D Meirow, J G Schenker
Jul 13, 2004·Social Science & Medicine·Matthew R Dudgeon, Marcia C Inhorn

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Citations

Nov 29, 2017·Medical Anthropology·Linda Rae Bennett
Apr 23, 2020·Journal of Religion and Health·Piyali Mitra
Oct 20, 2006·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Marcia C Inhorn
Jun 23, 2009·International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics : the Official Organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics·Marcia C Inhorn
Mar 16, 2011·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Michael GrynbergRenato Fanchin
Apr 30, 2008·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Anjana NairGiuseppe Del Priore
Aug 27, 2016·Human Fertility : Journal of the British Fertility Society·Shafali Talisa Arya, Bridget Dibb
Dec 1, 2017·Journal of Religion and Health·Robert Klitzman
Sep 6, 2007·Human Fertility : Journal of the British Fertility Society·Robab Latifnejad RoudsariPam A Smith
Jun 22, 2017·Human Fertility : Journal of the British Fertility Society·Aliyar Ahmadi, Sara Bamdad
Aug 30, 2006·Medical Anthropology Quarterly·Marcia C Inhorn
Jul 8, 2009·Public Understanding of Science·Nicky HudsonAditya Bharadwaj
Nov 26, 2015·Journal of Religion and Health·Marcia C Inhorn, Soraya Tremayne
Jan 31, 2015·Medical Anthropology·Sebastian Mohr
May 8, 2021·Human Fertility : Journal of the British Fertility Society·Ya'arit Bokek-Cohen, Mahdi Tarabeih
Oct 20, 2021·Journal of Religion and Health·Ya'arit Bokek-CohenMahdi Tarabeih

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