SEXUALITY, FERTILITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL IN SINGAPORE SOCIETY

Abstract

THIS thesis is about the politics of reproduction. It seeks to document how the very bodies of individuals become contested territory on medical, governmental and familial grounds. In view of this, I seek to examine how the individual’s rights over her capacity to reproduce are encroached on by these parties. At the level of government, this is done by means of population and other social policies which seek to influence individual reproductive behaviour patterns. Furthermore, by passing guidelines to which medical personnel have to adhere, the government determines how much of the advances of medical science should be made accessible to individuals, and the circumstances under which they can avail themselves of these advances. Medicine also offers to the government a technology by which the population can be subject to surveillance. Through medicine, government decisions taken at the policy-making level penetrate the very bodies of individuals. As it is only women who give birth, it if, only women who come under such surveillance. This thesis is therefore, concerned with the politics that surround women's reproductive ability, and the attempts of parties seeking to penetrate women's inner space, each with its own agenda and for its own ends.