This video explains the concept of medical tourism, visiting a foreign country to receive medical treatment. Individuals can become (or want to become) medical tourists for a variety of reasons such as availability of care and a reduced cost of treatment compared to home country. This is not a new concept, but the increasing international flows has made it an billion-dollar industry (Nahman, 2016).
Inhorn discusses the change in flows seeking medical treatment, instead of ‘less developed countries’ traveling to ‘more developed countries’, the reverse has been steadily increasing. With a particular focus on medical tourism for individuals seeking reproductive assistance such as ARTs (Artificial Reproductive Technologies), which include IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization) or SRTs (Screening Reproductive Technologies), which she names ‘reprotravelers’.
Inhorn discusses the place of IVF in Islam. Making the distinction between Sunni and Shia, she notes how in Egypt the two groups have responded. For the Sunni, IVF is accepted, but third party donations are not. On the other hand, for Shia, both IVF and third party donations are welcomed (Inhorn, 2003). This challenges notions of new technological research being bound to secular countries (Inhorn, 2003). In another book Inhorn discusses how women seeking reproductive treatment abroad visit Dubai which Inhorn calls a ‘reprohub’ (Inhorn, 2015). Such locations are trying to attract visitors for their medical faculties. This change in flow of medical tourists or ‘reprotravelers’, consents notions of passive patients in the biomedical context (Inhorn, 2015). Instead of being subject to the ‘medical-gaze’, women are able to make choices about their bodies to get the medical treatments they desire.
Additionally, medical tourism is becoming popular not only for availability of treatment or a reduced price but holiday packages. This video shows how companies such as CuroTrip, are offering holiday packages, so medical trips are combined with a touristic experience. This may have an impact on ‘local’ economies such as American healthcare which is notoriously expensive. What will a shift in medical focus from the ‘west’ to different loci of medical care mean for the future of biomedicine?
There is a lot of potential for medical tourism, by providing treatments otherwise unavailable or too expensive, more people are able to alleviate their pains, or conceive children. However, with the good there is also bad, with the promises there are also potential problems. Already there are many documented cases of dangerous and illegal medical tourism treatments. However, through international co-operations and strict regulations, medical tourism does have the potential to democratize treatments.
References
CuroTrip (2019). CuroTrip for Medical Tourism. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=386bDMDMcYw [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
HowCast (2019). Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) | Infertility. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcK4UZe4UQ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
Inhorn, Marcia C. (2003) Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion, and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt. New York: Routledge.
Inhorn, Marcia C. (2015) Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Nahman, M. (2016). Reproductive Tourism: Through the Anthropological “Reproscope”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 45(1), pp.417-432.
NowThis World (2015). What Is Medical Tourism?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0wzsvIeMn4 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
The Doctors (2018). The Possible Deadly Side Effects of Medical Tourism. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI8B4sZdSLc [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
YaleUniversity (2016). Marcia Inhorn: “Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLgvp5FceCQ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
Jasmin R. 