Life After Cryopreservation

Image: View inside a biobank of embryos donated for research
Despite the mainstream practice of freezing excess embryos after in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States, what to do with the growing number of reproductive remainders became the subject of controversy at the turn of the twenty-first century. Following IVF, fertility patients typically have four options for their unused embryos: discard, long term storage, donation for research, or donation for procreation. Based on twenty-seven months of ethnographic research within organizations committed to repurposing leftover embryos (e.g. Christian embryo adoption programs, human embryo tissue banks), this project examines what happens with frozen embryos after cryopreservation.  

Conducted between 2008-2018, this multi-sited investigation was set in California but extended across the United States. My conclusions are based on in-depth interviews, document analysis, and participant observation within embryo repurposing organizations.
The study includes perspectives from two main groups: embryo professionals (doctors, nurses, social workers, counselors, embryologists, students, study coordinators, lab managers, lawyers, theologians, bioethicists) and embryo program participants (donors, recipients, fertility patients). Two hundred individuals gave generously of their time in formal, semi-structured interviews.     

My interest in the political 'lives' of frozen embryos after cryopreservation arises from a longstanding involvement in reproductive politics, both in the United States and abroad. Frozen embryos are mobilized within battles implicating reproductive justice, fought over in divorce court battles, and regarded as precious resources for scientific research. Ethnography provides a fresh entry point into these social controversies by revealing presumptions about the often polarizing politics around "life itself" and uncovering unexpected common ground across American efforts to save.
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Writing

*If you are interested in reading any publication and do not have free access to copies, please contact me as I would be happy sending you one*
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My book project, Ex Utero: Political Lives of Frozen Embryos, draws primarily on ethnographic research with Christian embryo adoption proponents and participants in the United States. 

The article entitled "Saving Embryos in Stem Cell Science and Christian Adoption" is included in a special issue in New Genetics & Society on ontologies of the living within biobanking. This article examines the saving ethics and practices that govern the repurposing of leftover embryos in the US. Read here. 

The chapter "Waiting: The Redemption of Frozen Embryos through Embryo Adoption and Stem Cell Research" is included in the edited collection Anthropology of the Fetus: Biology, Culture, and Society (Berghahn Books 2017). Read here.

Perspectives from the Field