Amanda Roth, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's & Gender Studies, contributed to the article "IVF Changed America. But Its Future is Under Threat" published August 7, 2024 by Jamie Ducharme in Time Magazine.
Roth, who specializes in bioethics, moral and feminist philosophy, and gender & sexuality studies, spoke to Ducharme about the role of IVF in allowing individuals to have genetically-related children and what IVF has meant for same-sex couples.
"In some ways, IVF is an unlikely target. The technology enables people who have badly wanted biological children, a sentiment that could be seen as having a 'conservative traditional family aspect to it,' says Amanda Roth, an associate professor of philosophy and women's and gender studies at the State University of New York at Geneseo. The importance of having children is a regular conservative talking point--see: Vance recently calling child-free women 'cat ladies' without a 'direct stake' in the future of America--and IVF makes it possible for more people to do that."
Roth drew on her ongoing research for a book on lgbtq+ family-making, reproductive ethics, and the (over)valuing of genetic ties in family and parenthood for this contribution.