IVF in Poland

In 2015, assisted reproductive technology (ART) was one of the main subjects broached during the run-up to the presidential elections in Poland. The position of the Catholic Church also played a key role in the public debate on reproductive biomedicine in Poland. This chapter examines and describes social and political discourses around ART in Poland, including the latest law on ART and its effects. It also presents data from ethnographic research that included in-depth interviews and participant observation. Nowadays, ART is still questioned as a method of infertility treatment in Poland despite the fact that it has been successfully performed there for over 30 years. Thus, this chapter focuses on two key myths around ART that play a role in Polish discourse: the myth of a technology that creates baby monsters and the myth of a neutral medical technology with no social consequences. Although the current law regarding IVF addresses most postulates of the communities associated with reproductive medicine, it remains – much like the Polish debate on IVF – imperfect, exclusionary and politically charged.