Unlimited Oocytes? (Re)Thinking (Re)Production in an Era of Accelerated Gametogenesis
Laura Teerijoki1, Monash University Clayton 1Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
Abstract
As countless ethnographies of transnational oocyte provision have recently demonstrated, a non-negligible fraction of reproductive eggs have entered the market. Even so, the demand for these reproductive cells far outstrips supply. Thus, discourse around in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), as a possible solution to the global egg cell shortage, has put a newfound spotlight on egg donation both in the contexts of biomedical research and in clinic-to-consumer relations. If an infinite number of gametes could be reprogrammed in vitro, not only would the gamete economy be rendered obsolete but oocytes could be generated without obliging donors to undergo the risks of ovarian stimulation or the physical burden of harvesting eggs.
What might this possible future, I ask, mean for those who currently provide eggs for our bioeconomy? Examining the solution IVG has mobilised, this presentation argues that reproductive justice, recognition and wage-labour, are under threat in these speculative futures. The first section critically unpacks the current discourse surrounding IVG within our neoliberal, capitalist and productivist bioeconomy. The second interrogates the ‘at-risk’ narratives of gender visible in current scholarship and argues for a more nuanced understanding of transnational racial capitalism and the organisation and exploitation of its labour power. Attuned to the ongoing struggles of redistributive and reproductive justice, this presentation invites bioethicists and cognate disciplines to recentre the figure of the egg cell provider across future analysis of up-and-coming biotechnologies. The rights of those who perform the invisible yet essential labour that sustain our collective biomedical futures demands for recognition anew.
Biography
Laura Teerijoki is PhD candidate at the Monash Bioethics Centre. Her research focuses on queer and trans-feminist readings of the not-yet-realised genomics and stem cell technologies of the future. Laura holds a BA from the University of Helsinki and an MSc in Gender/Sexuality studies from the London School of Economics.