This quote stuck out to me because it made me question, do IVF parents love their children MORE because of it being harder to bring them into the world? I wonder if more people should have to go through a more complicated process to be able to be a parent. With IVF, both parents are committed to having this child together. While the 'traditional' way of becoming a parent is a lot easier, which leads to so many unwanted children being born. I feel like having a process where both people are serious about bringing a child into the world is better for the parents and the child. That being said, maybe the parents seem more controlling of said child because they worked so hard....

People writing about homosexuality in the Arab world, seem to be purposefully using sources from older texts to mischaracterize Middle Eastern views. This is a great way to further push the idea that their ideologies are 'bad' and Western ideas are 'good'. It's all part of the propaganda the West pushes to convince Westerners that they are the most advanced part of the world in technology and ideology. I really like what the author said a few pages ago where he says that Westerners only looking at older texts for reference is like Arabs looking at books from the Medieval period and using that to judge the West. It is important to analyze modern texts and their full context to base an opinion. Even then, we may not fully understand another person's view on something because we have different cultures and beliefs.

This quote summarizes the true feelings behind many Westerners that claim Muslim women are oppressed by their culture. Many Westerners have this convoluted idea that Islam is a woman hating religion and that every Muslim woman must be forced to be a part of this religion. In reality, these Westerners ignore the fact that it is the government in many Middle Eastern countries that is oppressing their inhabitants. It is true that women's rights are still limited because men are in power, but this is an issue in many countries all over the world. Many feelings towards Muslim Women are born out of hatred for Islam.

This quote really spoke to me because this is exactly how I feel trying to relate to or discuss topics with people, whose political beliefs are so incoherent. I tried to sympathize with someone's whose beliefs differ from mine so greatly, but the entire conversation was more like an argument. It is like they want so desperately to be understood, but at they same time they aren't making any sense. That is why it is easier to surround yourself with people who share your ideologies.

I can't believe they referred to people as low cost bioavailable experimental subject populations!!! They are humans! I feel like this is a way to dehumanize the subject and they become another number in such an experiment. Also, referring to someone as such is a dangerous mindset because then the person in charge doesn't care what may happen to them. Its like looking at data and saying "Out of 100 people, 90 subjects had no lethal side effects!" versus "Tragically 10 people passed during such experiment." The way the data is looked at depends on how the people are viewed.

When the author talks about physicians that do not harbor racist beliefs, providing inadequate care to people of color it raises a lot of questions for me. I wonder if these physicians are practicing a sort of 'weaponized incompetence'. Maybe they have some weird idea that their patients of color must receive different care over their white patients? The author goes on to say that they are working under a racist institution so does the blame fall on the hospital? I couldn't imagine purposefully treating my patient differently because of the color of their skin.

The author seems to point out how tempting it is to point out the differences between their culture and a culture they're studying. That it is irresistible to find the things that differentiate us from each other. The author uses another anthropologist to further explore definitions of science in different cultures. Could the other anthropologist be considered an 'other'? Would we have to find specific differences of Malinowski to define his lifestyle as 'other'?

I think many doctors use medications as a default 'fix' to a problem which may (or may not) be related to them trying to push us to take more medications. It is possible but in my opinion I don't think they are pushing drugs for the sake of it. I agree that the chronic use of medicine is on the rise and has been for years, but I also think that this push for medicine has to do with our life expectancy growing. Many of these professionals are trying to maximize our lifespans, so the idea of 'getting ahead' of these known ailments is the priority.

This phrase the, "suspension of the ethical" stood out to me because of how often we see the people in the book do this. So far, in just the Introduction we have seen many different people suspend their ethics for some outside reason. While their reasoning may be different from the 'divine' its a similar concept. Instead of women mourning the loss of their children, they have learned to expect that most of their kids will die. The way I see it is they are suspending their ethics/morals because that has become the 'norm'. It made me think about how many times we see people suspend their ethics for an outside being even today. Whether it be for a 'divine' reason or for a similar reason. That they can act a certain way because it is 'normal'. In my eyes, this is a way for someone to feel better about not acting or feeling a certain way. The reason these mothers, even fathers, aren't upset with how many losses they've endured is because they can blame it on the society's expectation. Or in a religious concept as described in the passage, Abraham can blame the divine for sacrificing his son. The reason this resonated so much with me is because I feel the need to connect this with everything going on in the United States. How people are passing certain laws because of the need to please a divine being. Or how others are placing blame on certain groups to elevate their status. They're suspending their ethics because of some outside influence. The way I see it is the suspension of ethics is finding a moral scapegoat, and it is a dangerous way of thinking.

This comment stood out to me because it reminded me that the anthropologists may have their own biases on the people they are studying. The anthropologist being their own source determines how their reports sound to the reader. This could influence the reader to feel positively or negatively about the culture they are reading about. I believe this is one of the more subjective fields of research because of this. Other research is more fact based, like chemistry for example. Chemistry depends on numbers and materials, things that can be recorded. Anthropology is based on the view of the anthropologist. It is based on their background, and we see another culture through their eyes. This does not necessarily mean the research is wrong, it is just something to remember when we analyze someone's writing.