Afterlives of Frozen Embryos |
Despite the mainstream practice of freezing excess embryos after in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States, what to do with the growing surplus of reproductive remainders became the subject of controversy at the turn of the twenty-first century. My current book project--Saving: The Afterlives of Frozen Embryos--enters into the controversial fray to examine the fates of frozen human embryos banked for future use. 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 field research in California (2008-2013) within organizations at the vanguard of repurposing leftover embryos--a Christian embryo adoption program and a stem cell institute tissue bank--this study provides a locus for exploring what happens in life after IVF.
The word "saving" connotes meanings in medicine, Christianity, and economics that, together, provide a polysemous lens for examining why and how embryos come to have afterlives. Waste and rescue serve as guiding ethics that drive the work of stem cell researchers and pro-life Christians who value the potential perceived within frozen embryos. Embryo savers also reveal commitments to conversion, or transforming reproductive rubbish into new forms of treasure. Converting embryos from the would-be children of fertility patients into adoptable orphans and invaluable research tools requires a closer look at an old anthropological staple: relationships. Through ethnographic stories, I explain how three main "ships" of belonging--kinship, ownership, and stewardship--inform how relationships of responsibility are "anchored" and "unanchored" to and through frozen embryos. While leftover embryos become something else in life after IVF, Saving makes clear that they often remain moored to their reproductive pasts and are never adrift without relations.
This project is based on what ethnographers call "multi-sited" research, which 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 saving organizations. Much of my insights about the afterlives of frozen embryos were developed through formal and informal conversations with 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 afterlives of frozen embryos arises from a longstanding interest in reproductive politics, and particularly the ways that IVF embryos are found at the center of diverse social agendas. Frozen embryos are mobilized within battles over embryo personhood and reproductive justice, fought over in divorce court battles, and coveted as scarce treasures for regenerative medicine research. Ethnography provides a fresh entry point into this bioethical controversy by revealing presumptions about the often polarizing politics around "life itself" and uncovering unexpected common ground across American efforts to save.
The word "saving" connotes meanings in medicine, Christianity, and economics that, together, provide a polysemous lens for examining why and how embryos come to have afterlives. Waste and rescue serve as guiding ethics that drive the work of stem cell researchers and pro-life Christians who value the potential perceived within frozen embryos. Embryo savers also reveal commitments to conversion, or transforming reproductive rubbish into new forms of treasure. Converting embryos from the would-be children of fertility patients into adoptable orphans and invaluable research tools requires a closer look at an old anthropological staple: relationships. Through ethnographic stories, I explain how three main "ships" of belonging--kinship, ownership, and stewardship--inform how relationships of responsibility are "anchored" and "unanchored" to and through frozen embryos. While leftover embryos become something else in life after IVF, Saving makes clear that they often remain moored to their reproductive pasts and are never adrift without relations.
This project is based on what ethnographers call "multi-sited" research, which 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 saving organizations. Much of my insights about the afterlives of frozen embryos were developed through formal and informal conversations with 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 afterlives of frozen embryos arises from a longstanding interest in reproductive politics, and particularly the ways that IVF embryos are found at the center of diverse social agendas. Frozen embryos are mobilized within battles over embryo personhood and reproductive justice, fought over in divorce court battles, and coveted as scarce treasures for regenerative medicine research. Ethnography provides a fresh entry point into this bioethical controversy by revealing presumptions about the often polarizing politics around "life itself" and uncovering unexpected common ground across American efforts to save.
Perspectives from the Field
