Abstract

JOHNSON, María Cecilia  and  OLMOS ALVAREZ, Ana Lucía. From clinics to sanctuaries: itineraries of believers who use assisted human reproduction techniques in Argentina. Soc. relig. [online]. 2021, vol.31, n.57, pp.113-113. ISSN 0326-9795.

This study seeks to understand, from a perspective of complexity and articulation between science and religion, the health-disease-care process of Catholic women believers who are ART users in Argentina. Based on their biomedical itineraries, attention is drawn to adherence and complementarity processes between the biomedical and theological perspectives. Twelve in-depth interviews with Catholic women users from Center Region and the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires City and data from an ethnography in Catholic institutional spaces were analyzed using qualitative and interpretive methodologies. The main dimensions of analysis addressed were: a) users' beliefs about science and religion; b) the ways in which science and religion are available resources that are mobilized in their biomedical itineraries. It is concluded that achieving pregnancy using ART is a project that involves nuances, instabilities, negotiations and critiques of science and religion. Thus, agents, practices, rituals and religious objects are resources that in the experiences of the users complement the biomedical itinerary of ART and contribute to different decisional, emotional and interpretive aspects of the reproductive experience.

Keywords : THRA; Catholicism; science; beliefs.