“It Just Alienated Us”: A Case Study to Explore the Impact of Assisted Reproductive Technology on Family Relationships

New reproductive technologies have the capacity to impact on both personal and healthcare relationships. This article utilizes a case study approach to unpack experiences of one couple who encountered immense and unforeseen difficulties as a result of treatment with assisted reproductive technology. Findings of this case reveal both difficulties and breaches in obtaining informed consent and the consequences these breaches have on relationships. Comprehensive information contributes to positive relationships between patients and healthcare providers. Maintaining supportive relationships between all parties concerned with assisted reproductive technology services is essential, as rifts in these relationships can be devastating and long-lasting.

[1]  Clare Williams.  Dilemmas in fetal medicine: premature application of technology or responding to women's choice? , 2006, Sociology of health & illness.

[2]  D. Jack,et al.  Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and Analyses , 1991 .

[3]  F. Rapport.  Exploring the beliefs and experiences of potential egg share donors. , 2003, Journal of advanced nursing.

[4]  N. Reame.  Informed consent issues in assisted reproduction. , 1999, Journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing : JOGNN.

[5]  J. Daar.  Regulating the Fiction of Informed Consent in ART Medicine , 2001, The American journal of bioethics : AJOB.

[6]  T. Beery,et al.  Family History: The First Genetic Screen , 2004, The Nurse practitioner.

[7]  J. Nisker,et al.  Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis: A Model of Progress and Concern , 1995 .

[8]  L. Getz,et al.  Ultrasound screening in pregnancy: advancing technology, soft markers for fetal chromosomal aberrations, and unacknowledged ethical dilemmas. , 2003, Social science & medicine.

[9]  Liz Stanley,et al.  Breaking out: Feminist consciousness and feminist research , 1984 .

[10]  A. Gurmankin.  Risk Information Provided to Prospective Oocyte Donors in a Preliminary Phone Call , 2001, The American journal of bioethics : AJOB.

[11]  R. Ripley,et al.  Prospective survey of factors affecting risk discussion during consent in a surgical specialty , 2004, The British journal of surgery.

[12]  K. Throsby.  Negotiating “normality” when IVF fails , 2002 .

[13]  M Sandelowski,et al.  (Ir)reconcilable differences? The debate concerning nursing and technology. , 1997, Image--the journal of nursing scholarship.

[14]  Clare Williams.  Framing the fetus in medical work: rituals and practices. , 2005, Social science & medicine.

[15]  Andrew Webster,et al.  Innovative Health Technologies and the Social: Redefining Health, Medicine and the Body , 2002 .

[16]  D. Dickenson,et al.  Property and women's alienation from their own reproductive labour. , 2001, Bioethics.

[17]  B. Barnes.  Biotechnology as Expertise , 2020, Nature, Risk and Responsibility.

[18]  C. Stabile.  Shooting the Mother: Fetal Photography and the Politics of Disappearance , 1992 .

[19]  D. Haraway,et al.  Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan_Meets_OncoMouse , 1997 .

[20]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[21]  Kim Usher,et al.  Case study: a bridge across the paradigms. , 2006, Nursing inquiry.

[22]  C. Freytag.  The Wounded Storyteller: Body Illness, and Ethics , 1996, Nature Medicine.

[23]  C. Salazar,et al.  The gift of motherhood: Egg donation in a Barcelona infertility clinic , 2005 .