Family - Lecture 06 - 2023

CCHU9088 We are Family:
Myths, Realities and the Future

of an Idea
Family the Hard Way: Infertility,
Sickness and Loss
1
Notice
This PowerPoint has been made available to students taking

CCHU9088 ‘We are Family’ at The University of Hong Kong. It
is intended for educational purposes only and not for general
circulation. All rights reserved.
© 2023 Carol Tsang
2
L05 Review
• Examine how the promotion of birth control
(especially artificial birth control) allowed
national leaders to drastically limit family size in
the 20th century
• Explore the strategies and contents of mass
media campaigns for family planning in Hong
Kong, mainland China, Singapore and India
• In view of the possible intentions of the mass
media campaigns, discuss what roles national
leaders and elites should play in family planning
3
Around the world, losing a child to sickness and
accidents is more common than perceived
Under-five mortality (the probability of dying

between birth and age five expressed per 1,000
live births) and infant mortality (the probability of
dying before age one expressed per 1,000 live
births) are widely used to measure a population’s
well-being
4
Around 11 million children
under the age of five die
annually in the world as a
whole
More than 10 million of

these deaths occur in the
developing world (Hill and
Amouzou, Disease and
Mortality in Sub-Saharan
Africa)
5
Sub-Saharan Africa is the
region most affected and
accounts for more than
33% of deaths of children
under the age of five (Hill et
al., Trends in Child Mortality
in the Developing World:
1960-1996)
6
7
8
Around 67% of the child deaths in the developing world are caused by
diseases (predominantly acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, and malaria)
for which low-cost interventions, including immunization and antibiotics, exist
(Jones et al., How Many Child Deaths Can We Prevent This Year)
9
10
01: Grieving losses
02: Coping with infertility
03: Is assisted reproductive technology (e.g.

IVF) a right?
11
01: Grieving losses
12
At least in the developed world, no parent is
prepared for a child’s death. Most parents do
not expect themselves to outlive their children
To many, grieving the death of a child may be

harder than grieving the death of other family
members
13
Why does loss matter to a
family?
After a loss, family members

often deal with their grief in
different ways. Grief can draw
families closer together. It can
also pull them apart.
Loss, as a life crisis, allows

us to examine family
dynamics more closely
14
Inspired by the Pregnancy &
Infant Loss Remembrance Day
in the US, a group of British
parents inaugurated their own
Baby Loss Awareness Day in
the UK in 2002
They raised funds by selling

handmade blue and pink ribbon
pins to support bereaved
parents
https://babyloss-awareness.org
15
Several British
fathers narrated how
they grieved their
children differently
from their wives
They highlight why

intersectionality
matters in the study
of grieving parents
16
A growing number of burial options for
miscarried babies in Hong Kong has
provided greater relief to parents still
mourning the loss of their children
The first government facility for

keeping abortuses was commissioned
in 2019 at the Fanling Wo Hop Shek
Cemetery. Named the “Garden of
Forever Love”, the facility provides
300 keeping spaces, with places for
offering flowers, placing memorial
cards and mounting commemorative
plaques
17
02: Coping with Infertility
18
Infertility 不育 is a problem facing 1 in 6
couples worldwide
Infertility entails not being able to get

pregnant after a year (or longer) of
unprotected sex
Infertility rate increases with female

age, particularly in women in their 30s
and 40s. It can happen to both women
and men
19
As more individuals tend to delay marriage and
childbirth, infertility has become prevalent,
affecting romantic relationships and family
dynamics
The child bearers, women rather men generally

experience more stress in infertility. Some infertile
women struggle with the stigma associated with
childless and feel incomplete without a child
20
Today, infertile couples are
encouraged to receive
treatments including different
types of assisted reproductive
technology (ART)
ART refers to any treatment in

which the removal of eggs or
sperms or manipulation of eggs,
sperms or embryos happen
outside the body
ART may include In vitro

fertilization-embryo transfer
(IVF), Intrauterine Insemination
(IUI), Intracytoplasmic Sperm
Injection (ICSI) and Frozen
embryo transfer (FET)
21
ART could be a double-edged sword in terms of
alleviating stress in infertility
Blessed with available technologies, individuals

are encouraged to keep trying or try harder. A
failed IVF may create more disappointment than
imagined, thus an increasingly strained romantic or
family relationship
22
In ‘The Trying Game’, Amy Klein
taps into the emotional aspects of
the infertility journey and advises
readers on various fertility
treatments from medical experts
However, books like this might

have generated more stress and
disappointment in women
23
Patricia Tan, a highly
successful professional
woman from
Singapore, recounts
the pain of her 5-year
IVF journey
24
How do commercials depict emotions associated with infertility?
What do they tell us about family as an institution?
25
03: Is assisted reproductive technology (e.g. IVF) a right?
26
“IVF is just another side of the reproductive choice
coin. You think about abortion as being a woman’s
right to choose ‘no.’ IVF is their right to choose
‘yes.’”
- Dr Robert Hunter, American fertility doctor, 2022
27
As American birth controller
Margaret Sanger noted, ‘No
woman can call herself free
until she can choose
consciously whether she will
or will not be a mother.’
28
In some regions, IVF is
considered an essential
medical treatment and funded
by the state
In the UK, women aged under

40 should be offered 3 cycles
of IVF treatment on the NHS
29
Under the three-child policy, the PRC government will offer
couples free fertility treatment under the public medical
insurance scheme
The insurance fund will cover ART to ease the financial burden
of infertility treatment on families, which can cost several
thousand yuan
30
On June 24, 2022, the US
Supreme Court overturned
the 1973 Roe v. Wade case
that provided a constitutional
right for people to terminate
a pregnancy
Individual states now have

the legal authority over
abortion, which means they
can restrict the procedure or
ban it altogether
31
IVF is a procedure that involves fertilizing a human
egg outside of the uterus. IVF involves storage and
disposition of embryos
If those embryos are considered people from the

moment they are fertilized, disposal could be a
crime and doctors could be prosecuted. That
would make IVF more costly and more
inaccessible
32
Rethinking
reproductive health
If birth control and abortion (the ability to

say no to unwanted pregnancies) are
considered human rights, should IVF
(allowing infertile individuals to give birth)
be a right too?
Is family a right?
33
Outcomes
• Examine how family members may grieve the

loss of a child differently
• Explore how assisted reproductive technology
(ART) might generate a mix of hopes and
disappointments
• Discuss if IVF is a right
34
Debate
Is IVF a right?
Is family a right?
35

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CCHU9088 We are Family:

Myths, Realities and the Future

This PowerPoint has been made available to students taking

© 2023 Carol Tsang

Under-five mortality (the probability of dying

More than 10 million of

02: Coping with infertility

03: Is assisted reproductive technology (e.g.

To many, grieving the death of a child may be

After a loss, family members

Loss, as a life crisis, allows

They raised funds by selling

They highlight why

The first government facility for

Infertility entails not being able to get

Infertility rate increases with female

The child bearers, women rather men generally

ART refers to any treatment in

ART may include In vitro

Blessed with available technologies, individuals

However, books like this might

- Dr Robert Hunter, American fertility doctor, 2022

In the UK, women aged under

Individual states now have

If those embryos are considered people from the

If birth control and abortion (the ability to

• Examine how family members may grieve the

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