The category ‘natural’ in the discourse of couples who used medically assisted procreation

Authors

  • Caroline Léchot University of Lausanne
  • Michèle Grossen University of Lausanne
  • Dominique Laufer Centre de Procréation Médicalement Assistée
  • François Ansermet University of Geneva
  • Marc Marc University of Lausanne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v8i2.187

Keywords:

medically assisted procreation, nature, categorisation, accountability, dialogism, argumentation

Abstract

As a constantly evolving set of complex biotechnologies, medically assisted procreation (MAP) challenges a category that seems to be taken for granted: that of ‘natural’. What is ‘natural’ or not when MAP is used to procreate? What are the boundaries between a ‘natural’ and a ‘non-natural’ fertilisation? Drawing upon a dialogical approach to language and cognition, our study examined the semantic field of the category ‘natural’ as expressed in interviews between a psychiatrist and seven couples who resorted to MAP and had to decide whether to keep their frozen pre-embryonic cells (zygotes) for further procreation or to allow them be destroyed. We examined how these couples evoked the category ‘natural’ and showed that in their argumentation, the category ‘natural’ encompassed a wide variety of phenomena, which shifted the boundaries between the ‘natural’ and ‘non-natural’. In so doing, the couples ‘renaturalised’ MAP, normalised it, moved the boundaries between what is legitimate or not, and showed their accountability. Hence, reference to the category ‘natural’ seemed to act both as an argumentative and a psychological resource in the elaboration of the person’s experience in resorting to MAP.

Author Biographies

  • Caroline Léchot, University of Lausanne

    Caroline Léchot is a doctoral student at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where she has also worked as a research and teaching assistant. Drawing on a dialogical framework, her doctoral dissertation concerns the psychological experience of couples who used medically assisted procreation.

  • Michèle Grossen, University of Lausanne

    Michèle Grossen is professor of social psychology at the University of Lausanne and is the supervisor of Caroline Léchot’s dissertation. Her main research interests concern dialogue and social interactions in teaching-learning situations, and therapeutic interviews.

  • Dominique Laufer, Centre de Procréation Médicalement Assistée

    Dominique Laufer, MD, is a child psychiatrist. Her interest in perinatal psychopathology brought her to work on fertility in the Centre de Procréation Médicalement Assistée in Lausanne. Her current research interests include parent experience of perinatal biotechnology, in particular representations of frozen embryos, and outcomes of traumatic experiences in childhood.

  • François Ansermet, University of Geneva

    François Ansermet, MD, is a psychoanalyst and is currently Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on early stress, subjective consequences of perinatal biotechnology, and relationships between neurosciences and psychoanalysis.

  • Marc Marc, University of Lausanne

    Marc Germond received his MD ObGyn Reproductive Medicine and Gynaecological Endocrinology FMH title in 1986 at the University of Lausanne. He is currently head of the Centre de Procréation Médicalement Assistée, Lausanne. His research interests include reproductive medicine and endocrinology, andrology, counselling and ethics in ART, parental investment in the child born after MAP.

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Published

2013-09-23

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

Léchot, C., Grossen, M., Laufer, D., Ansermet, F., & Marc, M. (2013). The category ‘natural’ in the discourse of couples who used medically assisted procreation. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 8(2), 187-208. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v8i2.187

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