Nobody's Child, Everybody's Children:

Between State Interventions, Religion, Culture, and Society: The Implications for Functioning & Reception of IVF In Poland and the Netherlands

Addressing contemporary problems with fertility and conception has made them an object of discussion in the Netherlands, where human in vitro fertilization (IVF) has been recognized as a medical method that can be of a help in overcoming reproductive difficulties. Due to state intervention, IVF has become a well-controlled and regulated practice. In the Netherlands today, it is possible to speak about IVF as a comprehensible, relatively safe, transparent, and in general affordable, and so accessible, medical practice.

In contrast, in Poland, where infertility is linked to the sexual domain of human life (that is, treated as a private and rather shameful matter) it has not received much governmental attention. Consequently, IVF has not been addressed or debated. Due to this lack of discussion and introduced regulations, the private medical sector has taken IVF over. It is not too much to say that the official position of the Polish Catholic Church, which rejects and condemns IVF as a conceptive method, plays an enormous role in state decisions. At present in Poland, IVF remains unknown to the general public and is frequently described as ‘whim-like,’ commercial, uncontrolled, difficult to access, and functioning in a void with limited information and medical practice. In this paper, while discussing the intersections of state intervention, religion, culture, and society, I will demonstrate the significant implications these interventions may have for IVF as a practice and for its general reception as a cultural phenomenon. Secondly, I will sketch a proposal of the approach that, in my view, should be adopted towards new reproductive techniques such as IVF.