Ms Laura Teerijoki1
1Monash University, , Australia
Biography:
Laura Teerijoki is a PhD candidate at Monash University. She holds a BA in Aesthetics from the University of Helsinki and an MSc in Gender and Sexuality Studies from the London School of Economics. Her primary research interests are queer and trans-feminist reproductive politics; sexuality, family, and historical struggles of work; abolitionist feminisms and anti-normative activisms; the political economy of stem cell technologies and genomics; and the meeting points of all these interests.
Abstract:
In the last few years, a new vocabulary of genetic reproduction has emerged around in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). ‘Multiplex’ reproduction, across various bioethical commentaries, is used to refer to the possible future of stem cell reprogramming that could theoretically allow for the genetic reproduction of more than two individuals. Examining the narrative construction of the ‘Multiplex’ family, this presentation argues that contemporary IVG imaginaries carry a particular legacy of coloniality and anti-blackness that frames the ethical acceptability of ‘Multiplex’ reproduction through its proximity to the (white) two-parent nuclear family. Concentrating on the figure of the ‘Multiplex’ family, and the vilification of non-white non-nuclear kinship, this presentation argues that the expansion of genetic relationality is produced through narratives of excess, of whether there can be ‘too many’ genetic parents, that reflect historically familiar and contemporary racialised anxieties about sexuality, gender and children’s ‘well-being’. Pairing the discourse of the ‘Multiplex’ family across two different eras, I offer a lens through which the “speculative futures” (Meskus 2023) of IVG can potentially be disrupted and reconfigured beyond the narrow vision of settler family relationality.