Assisted reproductive travel: UK patient trajectories

Media reporting of ‘fertility tourism’ tends to portray those who travel as a cohesive group, marked by their desperation and/or selfishness and propensity towards morally questionable behaviour. However, to date little has been known about the profile of those leaving the UK for treatment. This paper discusses the first UK-based study of patient assisted reproduction travel that was designed to explore individual travel trajectories. It is argued that existing ways of conceptualizing cross-border reproductive care as ‘fertility or reproductive tourism’ are in danger of essentializing what the data suggest are diverse, complex and often ambiguous motivations for reproductive travel. The concept of seriality is used to suggest that, whilst ‘reproductive tourists’ share some characteristics, they also differ in significant ways. This paper argues that, through an examination of the personal landscapes of fertility travel, the diverse processes involved in reproductive travel can be better understood and policymakers can be assisted to avoid what might be regarded as simplistic responses to cross-border reproductive care.Media reporting of ‘fertility tourism’ tends to portray those who travel as a cohesive group, marked by their desperation and/or selfishness and propensity towards morally questionable behaviour. However, to date little has been known about the profile of those leaving the UK for treatment. In this paper we discuss the first UK-based study of patient assisted reproduction travel that was designed to explore individual travel trajectories. We argue that existing ways of conceptualizing cross-border reproductive care as ‘fertility or reproductive tourism’ are in danger of essentializing what our data suggest are diverse, complex and often ambiguous motivations for reproductive travel. We use the concept of seriality to suggest that whilst reproductive tourists share some characteristics they also differ in significant ways. We argue that through an examination of the personal landscapes of fertility travel, we can better understand the diverse processes involved in reproductive travel and assist policymakers to avoid what might be regarded as simplistic responses to cross-border reproductive care.