QTReproART · Towards an Inclusive Common European Framework for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): Queer Transgender Reproduction in the Age of ART.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-08-01 → 2019-07-31
- EU contribution
- €185,857
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
Towards an Inclusive Common European Framework for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): Queer Transgender Reproduction in the Age of ART.
The use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) has advanced and spread dramatically over the past two decades as fertility issues have risen and biotechnologies have advanced. However, regulations regarding ARTs vary across European countries, creating specific challenges for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) people. This has led to fertility tourism (going to another country for ART treatment) and challenges around access to ARTs and to parenthood status for LGBTQ people.This study therefore investigates the possibility of more unified European guidelines regarding ARTs which would be more inclusive of LGBTQ people. The study focussed on six European countries: Austria, Estonia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. The main research questions were: How is the access to ARTs for LGBTQ persons regulated in these six countries? What are the experiences of queer and transgender people (in each country) with ARTs? What could be improved to provide better access to and treatment with ART for queer and transgender people? The overall objective of this project is the production of guidelines for a more inclusive common European framework for ARTs. This framework is important for society to avoid the continuing discrimination regarding queer and transgender reproduction. Objectives in detail: 1) Developing a common inclusive European framework for ARTs, based on reported queer and transgender experiences and views – including (equal and just) access to and treatment with ARTs. 2) A comparative analysis of diverse sets of ARTS regulations and of LGBTQI rights in 6 EU-states: Austria, Estonia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK. 3) Providing original, empirical data on queer and transgender people’s use, experiences of and access to ART in these 6 European countries. This constitutes an archive of queer and transgender people’s use/experiences of ART. 4) Constructing briefing notes to policy makers on inclusive ART regulation (EU- and national governmental institutions and medical associations).
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The use and regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) has undergone repeated significant changes since the 1980s, partly to accommodate biotechnological developments, partly to recognize shifts in socio-cultural practices of kinship and family. These changes have generally been towards greater inclusivity but have been variedly legislated and implemented in the diverse European countries, leading to ‘reproductive migration’. As the numbers of ART users and clinics rise, there is a clear need to provide a common European framework for ART: this is the purpose of this project.One social group particularly affected by ART policies are queer and transgender people. Most research on their use of ART is performed in English-speaking, western European countries, much less in central European ones and virtually none in east European countries - this project will fill that gap. However, eastern Europeans and their clinics play a major role in European ART use through ‘fertility tourism’ and the provision of biomaterials (eggs, sperm, etc.). This 3-stage comparative project will examine the regulation of ART and the experiences of self-identified queer and transgender people with ART in 6 purposely selected European countries: Austria, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Spain and the UK, in order to draft a more inclusive common European framework for ART. To do so, the ER will work at the Centre for Gender Research (CGR) at Uppsala University, Sweden, analyzing diverse national European ART guidelines and frameworks, collecting original empirical data on queer and transgender people’s experiences of ART, and drafting the framework. Purposive sampling and innovative methods such as community feedback loops will help to create outcomes that impact not only ART research, but importantly on ART policies and legislations, on LGBTQI rights and ART, on LGBTQI people and their families, and on strengthening the EU as a union with common frameworks.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UPPSALA UNIVERSITET · UppsalaCoordinatorSweden
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union