The ‘Rogue’ Doctor: Runaway Temporality in Assisted Conception in North India
This keynote address is part of EdCMA/CSAS Health in South Asia Workshop (seminar room 5 of CMB): Welcome Tea/coffee (0915-0930); Keynote address by Anindita Majumdar (0930-1100); Workshop presentations and discussion (1100-1230); Lunch (1230-1330 CMB Foyer); Open discussion ‘Health in South Asia’ (1330-1430).
The ‘Rogue’ Doctor: Runaway Temporality in Assisted Conception in North India
In rural Haryana, India, the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) specialist, Dr Rajeshi, is identified as the ‘rogue doctor’ in providing, and facilitating, assisted conception to elderly infertile couples who are otherwise refused IVF by other doctors and fertility specialists. Linked to the emerging practice of assisting birth for women and men in their late 60s and early 70s in India, this paper is inspired by the idea of ‘legitimate reproduction’ within a supposed ‘aberrant’ reproductive body.