Transforming social contracts: the social and cultural history of IVF in Denmark

Sebastian Mohr*, Lene Koch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The introduction of IVF in Denmark was accompanied by social transformations: contestations of medical authority, negotiations of who might access reproductive biomedicine and changes in individual and social identity due to reproductive technologies. Looking at the making of Danish IVF, this article sketches its social and cultural history by revisiting the legal, medical, technological and social developments that characterized the introduction of IVF in Denmark as well as by contextualizing the social research on the uses and impacts of IVF carried out in the 1980s and 1990s within these developments. The making of Danish IVF is presented as a transformative event in so far as it changed Denmark from being a society concerned about the social consequences of reproductive technologies to a moral collective characterized by a joined sense of responsibility for Denmark's procreative future.

Original languageEnglish
JournalReproductive Biomedicine & Society Online
Volume2
Pages (from-to)88-96
Number of pages9
ISSN2405-6618
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2016

Keywords

  • Denmark
  • gender
  • reproductive health services
  • social history
  • sociality
  • state

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