[Keynote Speeches]
1. Reproductive Ability, Motherhood and Civil Rights
- Kim, Eun Sil (Ewha Woman's University, Women's Studies)
This text raises questions about how reproductive ability
of Korean women becomes the mechanism to reproduce borders
of state nations, gender concepts and the existing social
orders, and if the issue about the reproduction of lives separated
from women's bodies is always anti-feminist. In spite of the
experience of the Hwang Woo-suk scandal, the reason that egg
extraction itself is not a big issue socially is that stem
cell research is related to Korean national interest and the
political and cultural recognition in Korean society that
women's issues are regarded as a less important subject than
national interest. The text examines where women's reproductive
ability is located in Korean modernity and where reproductive
rights stand in civil rights movement of Korean women. For
the examination, it develops discussion on the state power
and women's reproduction such as women's civil rights movement
in Korean society and a discourse on low birth rates.
2. "Biotechnology" and "Women's Bodies"
: Hazardous Concepts?
- Janelle S. Taylor (Department of Anthropology, University
of Washington)
This text says that very simple insight, that health, illness,
healing, and medicine including medical technologies, even
the cutting-edge biotechnologies of stem-cell research and
cloning, can if we take it seriously really help us think
more clearly and act more effectively around issues such as
stem cells and cloning. And this text offers some reflections
and cautions concerning the theoretical ideas that are already
implicit within the key terms "biotechnology"and "women's
bodies," around which our discussion here has coalesced. We
must try to make explicit the assumptions hidden within these
terms that we are using, drag them into view so that we can
reflect on them, discuss them, and work through them together,
as consciously and as thoughtfully as we can. After discussing
this concerning of two concepts, Taylor argues that to combat
the fetishism of biotechnology and women's bodies and reclaim
them as fully social requires working to create new contexts,
and offers four helpful suggestions.
Full text : Taylor20060921.pdf
[panel session]
3. Embryonic stem cell research and Women
- Myung Jin Sook (Member of the policy Committee of Korean
Womenlink / Director, Civil Leadership Program ELSD)
In Korean society which had experienced the Hwang Woo-suk
scandal, research using women's eggs as raw materials was
appreciated as global success and was discussed to promote
national competitiveness, but concerns for women's bodies
and health was taken lightly. Taking the stand that the difference
in experiences by sex should be considered important, this
writing arranges the problems of Hwang Woo-suk's research
in Korean society in a women's position.
Full text : Myung20060921.pdf
4. The Politics of Stem Cell Research and Egg Extraction
in the United States
- Emily Galpern (Center for Genetics and Society, USA)
This text addresses four primary issues in the United States
: first, the state of human embryonic stem cell research there;
second, the connection between abortion politics and stem
cell research and the consequent polarized nature of public
debate; third, the emphasis on reproductive rights as individual
rights rather than human rights; and fourth, the absence of
comprehensive national regulation of genetic and reproductive
technologies or consistent safeguards for women who provide
eggs for stem cell research. And it concludes with our responsibility,
globally, as women's health advocates.
Full text : Galpern20060921.pdf
5. The Health Risks of Egg Extraction
- Elana Hayasaka (Our Bodies Ourselves (Boston, Massachusetts,
USA)
In this text, Elana Hayasaka focuses on the health risks
to women associated with the egg extraction process, especially
what we don't know about the health risks and safety of the
procedure. Many people are under the misimpression that there
are no significant risks to egg extraction because it is practiced
so widely in several hundred IVF clinics across the United
States and hundreds more across the globe. This being said,
there is currently very little good-quality information about
egg extraction to aid women in making informed choices. She
starts with what we do know, and then touch upon the many
unanswered questions that have the potential to hurt and exploit
the health of women.
Full text : Hayasaka20060921.pdf
6. Beyond Bioethics: The Globalized Reality of Ova
Trafficking and the Possibility of Feminist Intervention
- Paik, Young Gyung (Member of the Policy Committee, Korean
WomenLink / Johns Hopkins University)
After all, at least at the official level, Korean society
is now advocating the ¡°harmony of ethics and science.¡± But
up to this point, we hear about the inappropriate acquisition
or utilization of ¡°human ova.¡± Where are the ¡°people¡± who
donated or sold ova and potentially experienced both physical
side effects and a sense of betrayal after the scientific
fraud was revealed? Why there is nobody accountable for their
suffering, legally, financially or even morally? This text
starts with a story that Korean WomenLink, with 35 other Women¡¯s
NGOs and Women¡¯s Committee of Minbyun, Lawyers for a Democratic
Society, sponsored two voluntary donors to file a suit against
the state and the medical institutions involved in the egg
extraction, and focuses on why the issue of egg extraction
should be dealt with as an important societal agenda and should
not be left to some NGOs¡¯ or to a handful of experts such
as scientists, ethicists, or lawyers.
7. "Ethics or Economics? Health or Wealth? Beyond
Ova in the Lab"
- Sarah Sexton (The Corner House, UK)
In the U.K, activities related to human biotechnology research
are to facilitate such research. As debates and decisions
surrounding the research are framed by the dichotomy between
for and against treatment, advancement and women's choice,
there are no chances to raise issues about who take care of
them, what roles biotechnology plays in science, health and
society. This text raises issues that are regarded to have
something to do with cloning and biotechnology research. In
the process, I want it to help solidarity, activities and
campaigns to secure women's human rights in the age of biotechnology
and science.
Full text : Sexton20060921.pdf