Frozen children and despairing embryos in the ‘new’ post-communist state: The debate on IVF in the context of Poland’s transition

Abstract

In vitro fertilization (IVF) technology has been in use in Poland for over 25 years with success and social approval, but it is still not regulated under Polish law. The current debate over different non-medical aspects of reproductive technologies in Poland is extremely heated and highly politicized. Politicians on the right, Catholic clergy and some journalists use very radical language and criticize IVF as a technique that plays with the lives and deaths of thousands and thousands of children. The aim of this article is to follow the Polish debate on IVF in the context of Poland's transition, which is marked primarily by two events: the collapse of communism in 1989 and access to the European Union in 2004. The article shows that the IVF debate concerns not only moral choices or legal regulation, but also citizenship, nation, state, and the role of the Catholic Church within. Moreover, it creates new citizens: frozen embryos, which being independent persons, have the right to life, 'dignity' and care. The history of IVF in Poland reveals the different tensions in the Polish transition to liberal democracy and it can be used to view a 'big' history of the Polish transition. It is one of the micro-histories which make this big story about Poland after 1989. Analyses of both the abortion debate and the IVF debate in Poland show that the process of democratization is very much connected with limiting women's reproductive rights, including the right to choose infertility treatment.

Between Advanced Medical Technology and Prayer: Infertility Treatment in Post-socialist Poland

“…IVF opponents encourage the use of naprotechnology which-as they emphasise-empowers the woman but also they study women with a modern approach and a clinical gaze designed to enclose her conclusively within the patriarchal power discourse. Moreover, naprotechnology epitomises the specifi c faetures of Polish democracy, infl uenced both by Western secular culture and by offi cial Roman Catholic doctrine [Mishtal 2010;Radkowska-Walkowicz 2014]. The current debate on IVF brings these tensions to the fore: in mainstream media priests and politicians discuss the moral evils of IVF and the effectiveness of naprotechnology based, among other things, on prayer, while at the same time fertility clinics offer all kinds of ART procedures (including surrogacy and egg donation, which are prohibited in many countries).…”

“…Eleonora Zielińska points out: 'The abortion debate is thus central to the process of democratization itself-to what models of democracy and the state will be institutionalized, to the ways in which the legal system and rule of law will function, and to the degree of direct citizens' participation in government.' [Zielińska 2000: 52] In the same way, the current IVF debate plays a part in negotiating the shape of democracy in Poland [Radkowska-Walkowicz 2014].…”

“…The naprotechnology website (www.naprotechnology.com) supported by the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Reproduction promises to 'Unleash the Power of a Woman's Cycle' and claims that: 'Thirty years of scientifi c research in studying normal and abnormal states in the menstrual and fertility cycles have unlocked their mysteries'. The key to a couple's happiness, and consequently (in this discourse), to the happiness of the nation (on the relationship between reproductive discourses and nationalistism in Poland after 1989, see Radkowska-Walkowicz [2014]) lies in the female body: in surgical intervention, testing, analysing, and describing. Moreover, naprotechnologists emphasise that the treatment should result in fertility, not pregnancy.…”

Until What Age Can a Woman Be Fertilized? A Debate on the Legislative Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in the Czech Parliament

“…dukci v Anglii (Human embryology and fertilization act), byl tento zákon označován jako "Frankenstein report". 16 Na silnou roli církve, které se po roce 1989 výrazně otevřel prostor pro to, aby mohla ovlivňovat politiku, v souvislosti se zákonnou úpravou IVF upozorňuje v Polsku Radkowska- Walkowicz (2014). IVF je zde odmítáno v paralele s potraty a popisováno jako tovární produkce lidí, mražení dětí, eugenika a nový holokaust.…”

Mitochondrial replacement therapy

“…In this country of Catholics, IVF is often compared to abortion, and is sometimes referred to as "the murder of Polish citizens". Not only do some legislators want IVF criminalized, they also encourage the stigmatism of children conceived through IVF (Radkowska-Walkowicz, 2014).…”