ABSTRACT
Amira, the “philosopher” whose poignant story forms the prologue of this book, hoped-but failed-to become an Egyptian mother of a test-tube baby. This book is dedicated to Amira and the other childless Egyptians whose attempts at test-tube baby making will be described in the chapters that follow. My anthropological understanding of the constraints these Egyptians face in their quest to succeed at IVF and the even newer ICSI was only made possible because of the hundreds of hours I spent with them in Egyptian IVF centers in 1996. To all of those brave IVF patients who agreed to come forward-but whose names have been assiduously changed in the pages that follow-I can never truly express my thanks and admiration for making visible to me a world marked by stigma, silence, and suffering.
