RISA CROMER
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Life After Cryopreservation

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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

Stem cell institute
Delivery of frozen embryos donated for research to the stem cell institute biobank
Preparing donated embryos for storage
The Biobank, housing hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos donated for scientific research
Look into the Biobank
Laboratory life in human embryo stem cell lab
Experiment with donated embryos utilizing time-lapse video technology
Procedure with donated embryo to extract stem cells in hopes of establishing a line
Booth at the first embryo donation/adoption conference hosted in 2008
Over 1000 adoption files within the flagship embryo adoption program started in 1998
Organizational board of active embryo donor and adoption clients at embryo adoption program
Calendar marking fertility clinic activities of embryo adoption clients (e.g. frozen embryo transfers, pregnancy results, miscarriages, births)
An embryo adoptive family's personalized children's book
Passage from an embryo adoptive family's memento book detailing the birth of their twins
Sentiments from an embryo donor to an adoptive family captured in a life book
Online telestrations and webinars promote embryo adoption
Prop cryotank with nursery stickers and accompanying sign that reads: "Frozen Nursery, where children's dreams come true"
Christian adoption agency booth at a county fair with cryotank prop
Flyer opposing human embryonic stem cell research featuring first child born through embryo adoption program
Flyer opposing human embryonic stem cell research on refrigerator in embryo adoption program office
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  • home
  • about
  • c.v.
  • teaching
  • research
    • accounting for life
    • embryo adoption
    • ex utero
    • race, religion, reproductive politics
    • saving
    • state righteousness
  • engagement
  • contact