Dr. Daisy Deomampo, Anthropology Professor at Rose Hill, recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on Technologies and Health Care Decision-Making. The research project will run from March 2018 to February 2019, and will look into the diverse reasons for why people access medical technologies to have children. The study seeks to answer the questions of how sociocultural beliefs influence experiences of infertility and the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), how views and practices in reproductive medicine and science shape popular ideas about gamete donation, and how legal cases shed light on sociocultural understandings of the value of gametes.
The research will focus on a cohort of Asian American gamete donors and recipients because of their high rate of ART utilization, because they are often underrepresented in research on gamete donation, and because they have an older mean age of mothers at first birth compared to other ethnic groups. This ethnographic study will take place in 3 metropolitan areas: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Honolulu, HI.
By exploring the social meanings attached to identity and DNA in the context of gamete donation, this project will offer much-needed ethnographic perspective on the bioethical and policy implications of reproductive technologies.
Congratulations, Daisy!!
