Stabila föräldrar för barnets bästa : Hur statliga riktlinjer för IVF-utredningar konstruerar goda föräldrar och påverkar tillgången till föräldraskap för personer med psykiska funktionsnedsättningar

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the access to IVF-treatment for people with psychiatric disabilities who intend to carry the child themselves. It explores how the Swedish welfare state resonates around people with psychiatric disabilities wanting to become parents, and how their reproductive rights might differ from others seeking the same treatment. Therefore, different official reports from the Swedish government and documents from the National Board of Health and Welfare that deals with the legal framework and state-sanctioned guidelines for medical professionals regarding IVF has been examined in a qualitive discourse analysis. Two interviews with two medical professionals working with IVF has also been conducted. The focus has been on the psychosocial interviews every treatment-seeking individual has to go through to determine if they are fit as parents. The main body of theory consists of work surrounding feminist disability studies, crip theory, discourse analysis, repronormativity and critical studies of the welfare state. This thesis set out to investigate how the demand from the government to put the best interest of the child first when deciding over who gets access to IVF are used to resonate around if people with psychiatric disabilities can be seen as fit parents. It also seeks to understand what these state-sanctioned guidelines and the way medical professionals interacts with them can say about the reproductive politics of the Swedish welfare state regarding people with psychiatric disabilities. The general conclusion is that the welfare state has implemented tools for reproductive control over the group that has been studied (particularly women and trans people) since at least the 1930’s, and while there has been significant change, the gatekeeping practises surrounding IVF can be seen as another tool for reproductive control. It is evident that people with psychiatric disabilities have to prove themselves in order to be seen as fit parents, and it is assumed that there is a risk trying to combine their psychiatric disabilities with the best interest of the child. While there is no legal framework denying this group access to IVF outright, this thesis shows that they face challenges to gain that access that people without psychiatric disabilities does not.