New reproductive technology:
a mixed blessing?
THE ADVANCES in reproductive technologies have aroused tremendous debates about the rights and wrongs
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
-private treatment is prohibitively expensive for most people. There is currently a 12-year wait for in vitro fertilization (IVF) including the time for investigation and trying other forms of of current research and its implications — surrogate motherhood, "cloning" and genetic manipulation.
This article, from the March/April issue of the British journal International, takes an initial look at the benefits and drawbacks for women of the new advances that are being made.
LEONORA LLOYD
OME FEMINISTS see the new tack on the autonomy and bodies of women. Right-wingers often condemn these developments as an attack on marriage and the family, on god-given "nature" itself. Certainly the questions raised
The new reproductive technology is mainly used to alleviate infertility, to identify and treat certain conditions before or shortly after conception, to select sex and to try and prevent certain altogether. It is generally taken to cover in vitro fertilization - and misleadingly called "test tube babies" — surrogacy, gene manipulation and variations or combinations of these techniques.
Most of the stories which have hit the headlines concern infertility, a problem thought to affect an increasing number of people. (One in six couples need some help to conceive
- although, of course, not all these are actually infertile). Factors thought to affect female infertility include the use of the contraceptive pill and the later age at which many women are choosing to have their first baby.
A common cause of infertility affecting an estimated 100,000 women
Britain is blocked fallopian tubes. Others have problems with their ovaries.
2
Male infertility is being increasingly recognized. So too is the possibility of environmentally-induced causes from our industrial society for both men and
4 women, although little investigation has been done and only hundreds out of many thousands of industrial chemicals
International Viewpoint • June 1, 1987 have been tested for their effects on fertility.
In the case of men, they may produce no sperm at all, their sperm count may be very low, or their sperm may have "low mobility" or be damaged in some way. Treatment is by some form of "artificial insemination", using either the partner's sperm, a donor's or even a mixture, with a syringe employed to introduce the sperm at the right time in the woman's cycle. This is not a new technique — it was first recorded as having been used by a Scottish doctor, John Hunter, in 1776.
This technique allows women without male partners to become pregnant, for example lesbians. The right-wing has protested against insemination by donor, as little better than adultery and certainly not a technique that should be available for the unmarried. However, it is so simple that selfinsemination groups have been set up. (One new danger is AIDS and potential donors should be tested to ensure that they are free from any infection).
Sperm banks and "super babies"
Sperm can be frozen and so men can arrange for storage of sperm before undergoing chemical therapy, for instance. Commercial sperm stores have already been set up in the United States to enable women to choose "super-babies" fathered by "great achievers"!
In Britain, there is a real shortage of clinics dealing with infertility in the National Health Service (NHS), and treatment.
By the end of 1985, there were ten NHS hospitals offering IVF, half of them in London. A further six private hospitals were charging around £1,000£2,000 an attempt, and up to three attempts may be needed before chances are ruled out altogether. (There are now a total of 20 centres, both private and NHS).
The success rate has reached about 40 per cent according to a 1984 study of 58 IVF teams working worldwide. Certain risks are involved for the woman because of the drugs and anaesthetics used, because of the danger of repeated ruptures of her ovaries as eggs are extracted and because of the chance of a multiple pregnancy.
### Commercial surrogate agencies
Infertility programmes sometimes involve the use of surrogacy (i.e. one woman carrying a foetus for another). Egg, sperm or both may be donated, either by the "commissioning couple" or by third parties. In Britain most publicity has centred on commercial surrogacy. In the case of "Baby Cotton" the surrogate mother was paid £6,500 while the American agency responsible for arranging it was paid a similar amount. Commercial surrogate agencies were outlawed in 1985 in this country (although individuals are not prohibited from acting as surrogate mothers and being paid). They continue, however, in the US where rich white parents have paid poor immigrant women to carry babies for them.
Surrogacy appears to have gone on informally for centuries between friends and sisters. It has caused controversy now because of its potentially exploitative aspects. Also it brings conflicts when the "natural" mother refuses to give up her child at birth. The right of a woman who has carried the pregnancy to keep the child should be supported and there should be as much legal protection for surrogate mothers as possible.
The prevention or cure of genetic
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY • SOUTH AFRICA disorders is another major area of development and research. It can be done in several stages. Genetic counselling is now available on the NHS, and is given where people's medical history merits it. Women can also be tested to detect disorders several weeks into their pregnancy if they are willing to run the current risks of possible miscarriage or damage to the foetus. If a disorder is found they may then opt for an abor-
People with disabilities devalued
Some feminists have been worried by what they see as ing people with disabilities. Society discriminates appallingly against disabled people in the provision of housing, jobs, education and in reproduction itself. It is possible, nonetheless, to fight this discrimination while supporting attempts to eliminate painful and distressing illnesses. There are undoubtedly great pressures on any woman who is carrying a damaged must remain a woman's choice whether to continue or end any tity of marriage (insemination by donor seen as adultery for instance), or which deny unmarried women the right to benefit from new reproductive technology, must be firmly rejected
At the same time, arguments against the research from the angle of those who feel profound misgivings about the increasing control of scientists and doctors over women's lives, and about the scope for abuses opened up by experiments, deserve serious consid-
In capitalist societies most research is either for military purposes commercially funded. And so long as it is left to market forces, there will always be cause for concern. So we need guidelines. For feminists and socialists the main questions should be: will this research help to improve the quality of life for at least a group of people, without damaging or exploiting another group? In particular, will it enhance women's role in society and women's self-esteem? Will it increase the ability of women to control their own reproSOUTH AFRICA
We need to start now to work for greater democratic control over scientific research. For example, the "ethical committees" already established volunby British scientists include a majority of lay members, and — specifically — a majority of women lay members where the research is into reproduction. And there should be strict guidelines about what areas of research should be pursued, how trials should be conducted, rules about informed consent
Our most important allies in this fight — to control scientists and scientific research - will themselves, many of whom want to be able to work on projects that will benefit humanity. Only when the research is seen as important to us all, and not something to be left to market forces, will we gain control. Those feminists
"a plague on all their houses" are leaving us without a strategy for campaigning against the worst manifestations of science. *
Metal unions win paid
Perhaps the area of most concern to feminists is that of sex selection. maternity leave There can be sound medical reasons for wanting to know the sex of the foetus, because a number of disorders are sexlinked, generally to the male. But it is for the selective abortion of female foetuses that the tests are most often used worldwide. Recent reports suggest that some women are using the results of scans to ask for abortions if they are carrying the "wrong" sex, and some doctors and hospitals are refusing to which indicate except for strictly medical reasons.
What of the future? There is no doubt that many women and men feel an enormous pressure and desire to produce children in this society, built as it is around the family unit. The social preson women to fulfill their "biological role" are enormous. And the way the family system works — usually excluding other people from a real share in childcare - often means that women feel that they must have their own children in order to be in-
But there is no doubt that infertility and inherited diseases are serious problems for those who face them. Further, infertile women need treatment -whether or not they want children - if they are ill. If help exists women are entitled to it and it should be made accessible to all who need it.
Any arguments against further rewhich are based on the "humanity" of the embryo or the sanc-
PREGNANCY can once again be celebrated instead of cursed by women workers - at least in the metal industry.
The country's first national industry-wide maternity agreement assures them of six months' paid leave and their job back when it's over.
Previously pregnancy was feared by many women workers — regarded as dispensable "part-time" workers under the present economic system — as it inevitably led to dismissal.
In desperation, women have been known to bind their stomachs to hide their pregnancy and then take a few days' "sick leave" to have the child. Others have risked death or permanent sterility in hastily performed back-street abortions.
Although a minority in the metal industry, militant women workers pressurized their unions to fight against this highly visible form of sex discrimination, arguing that women have the right to job security too!
It was initially raised by the Metal and Allied Workers' Union during the 1986 industry-wide negotiations and strongly supported by all the metal in-
Just a fortnight ago, the metal unions and the employers' association, SEIFSA, agreed to six months' maternity leave with weekly pay ranging from 50 to 144 Rands. If other maternity benefits are added, this means women will receive nearly full pay for three months of the leave.
The important job protection clauses in the agreement lay down that women qualifying for maternity leave will:
• Qualify for leave and leave bonus payments as if she had unbroken
• Be re-employed at the same or similar job.
• Not only get the same pay, but will also automatically quality for any increases that have been awarded
Not suffer any prejudice in promotion or merit increases because of
• Be given a written guarantee of re-employment, giving the date on which she agrees to return.
The maternity agreement is a tremendous leap forward for the struggle against sexual inequality at the workplace. However, other areas of discrimination still remain. women still suffer poorer job opportunities, unequal pay for similar work, segregation into poorly paid jobs like cleaning and catering, and widespread sexual harassment — not only by management but also by male colleagues. [From SA Metal Worker, March/April 1987] * June 1, 1987 • International Viewpoint
NEWS FROM
THE FOURTH against the attack they suffered as a result of the Alfa-FIAT accord
At the same time, sensitivity to the ecological, nuclear and peace issues, and a desire to see these matters decided on by referendums, has been grow-
INTERNATIONAL A common electoral campaign
WITH BOTH major parties of the working class movement vying to demonstrate their "understanding" of the needs of the capitalists, there is a crying need for a political alternative for the large number of youth and working people who have shown their readiness to struggle. To try to begin to fill this vacuum, the Lega Comunista Rivoluzionaria, Italian section of the Fourth International, and Democrazia Proletaria, a far left organization represented in parliament, signed the following accord for a united slate for the June 14 general election.
cant convergences between the two organizations 1n analysis, objectives and daily political activity, Democrazia Proletaria and the Revolutionary Communist League, Italian section of the Fourth International, reaffirm the usefulness of a political accord for the coming legislative elections. Such an accord, which was already tried out with positive results in 1983 and 1985, is within the framework of an autonomy of their respective political projects.
2 The five-party ruling coalition has
been dissolved as a result of a power fight between the Christian Democracy
6 and the Italian Socialist Party, that was
to a very large extent divorced from the people's needs and struggles. It did not challenge the program of one of the worst governments in the last 20 International Viewpoint • June 1, 1987 years: the one that installed missiles in Sicily, inaugurated the Nuclear Energy Plan, cut the sliding scale of wages and social security spending, increased unsteady jobs and deprived the voters of the right to vote by referendum on the question of nuclear energy.
Any other coalition of the five parties that comes out of the elections will push the same program, perhaps even with a greater ferocity, since the economic context is less favorable. It will pin its prospects on authoritarian reform going toward a "second republic" [that is, a new constitution], and a further deterioration in the living conditions of the masses, as well as pro-nuclear and pro-war options.
The crisis of orientation provoked by free-enterprise economics rise to new social fightbacks and a new desire for change. This is indicated by the struggles of the Genoa dock workers, teachers, railway workers and people evicted from their homes, as well as the results of the union referendums on the new contracts. In the last case, the vote showed quite large opposition, sometimes a majority, to the orientation of the union apparatuses. Moreover, the Alfa Romeo workers attempted to mount an immediate fightback ing. This has been confirmed by many mobilizations, for example the one on April 26 against the Caorso nuclear reactor.
It is necessary to increase the number of united demonstrations, to promote self-organization and social combativity in order to foster a culture of solidarity and equality in opposition to the prevailing individualism and against the determination of the bosses to impose their choices at any cost.
In the election campaign itself, we want to assert the following princi-
• The right to a guaranteed socially useful job, to culture, to egalitarian social services, to health healthy environment, to equality without discrimination based on and nationality.
Extension of democratic rights
• Defence and extension of democratic rights through the introduction of referendums in which proposals could be made, rejection of any attacks on proportional representation and of any limitation of the right to strike, support for council democracy in the unions based on the principles in the Charter of the Self-Convoked....
Peace and solidarity with the oppressed peoples and liberation moveLEGA
COMUNI
CONSIGLARO RIZZI
BRIVOLU
izione italiana dell
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the struggles of the workers at Alfa Romeo. We therefore reaffirm the usefulness of our being represented in govalso, the fights ernment so that there, and interests of the working people can be reflected and given weight in the political confrontation.
It is through such initiatives that the reform and student and trade-union work. ALSO AVAILABLE: NSR No. 1: The place of Marxism in history; by Ernest Mandel. 40 pages. 20FF; E2; $3.50. NSR No. 2: "The second Chinese revolution and the shaping of the Maoist outlook*, by Pierre Rousset. 32 pages, 20FF; £2; £3.50. FORTHCOMING ISSUES:
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Marxist journal ty, self-management and direct democracy, the right of the peoples to self-determination and the unilateral declaration of peace. "We want to recreat the idea of socialism itself"
In essence, we want to recreate the idea of socialism itself, a socialism that would be attractive as a scheme for a libertarian and self-managed society, in opposition both to the domination of capitalist profit, which is strangling humanity by its deadly logic and its destruction of nature, and to the bureaucratic models of the East. It is in this area in particular that we can gauge the profound strategic crisis of the Italian left, paralyzed by its inability to offer an alternative project of its own because of its subordination to the rules of the capitalism system.
The electoral unity between Democrazia Proletaria and the LCR is, therefore, in itself a part of testing and looking for answers on the left. It is indissolubly linked to organizing the subjects of social action, to support for struggles and for the building up of a class-struggle memory in the masses.
On the basis of these points of convergence, Democrazia Proletaria and the LCR will wage a common electoral campaign, with the LCR putting up its own candidates on the Democrazia Proletaria slates. * launched
THE WEEKEND of May 9-10 saw the birth of a new revolutionary Marxist magazine in Britain, Socialist Outlook.
The launch conference for the magazine marked the culmination of an 18 month fusion process between the currents around International and Socialist Viewpoint. International came into existence in late 1985 as a result of a split in the editorial board of Socialist Action. Many of Internationals supporters are comrades who have been in political solidarity with the Fourth International for many years.
The Socialist Viewpoint current, the smaller of the two, emerged from a split in the Trotskyist journal Socialist Organiser. It included among its supporters a number of comrades expelled from the Healeyite Workers' Revolutionary Party in 1974, who have long experience as rank and file leaders in the trade unions, and whose work at the British Leyland car factory in Cowley is well-known in the British
The two currents decided on a lengthy fusion process to ensure that the fusion took place on the maximum agreement and clarity possible. In particular, the fusion took place on the basis of political solidarity with the United Secretariat (USec) of the Fourth International. The fusion conference took lengthy reports on the British political situation, affirmative action and on the programmatic basis of the fusion.
More than 300 people attended the conference. Greetings were given to the conference by the Horizons current in the German Greens, and by the US organizations Solidarity, the Fourth International Tendency and Socialist Action.
Addressing the conference on behalf of the USec, Livio Maitan welcomed the fusion of the two magazines. He pointed to the importance of recent working class struggles against austerity in Europe, particularly those in France and Spain. He also stressed the importance of measures to maximize the participation of women in the leadership of the Trotskyist move- 2 ment, and noted that these questions would be on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International. * [Statement from Socialist Outlook editorial board.] June 1, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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