The Oocyte Economy: The Changing Meaning of Human Eggs

Author:   Catherine Waldby
Publisher:   Duke University Press
ISBN:  

9781478004721


Pages:   248
Publication Date:   06 May 2019
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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The Oocyte Economy: The Changing Meaning of Human Eggs


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Overview

In recent years increasing numbers of women from wealthy countries have turned to egg donation, egg freezing, and in vitro fertilization to become pregnant, especially later in life. This trend has created new ways of using, exchanging, and understanding oocytes-the reproductive cells specific to women. In The Oocyte Economy Catherine Waldby draws on 130 interviews---with scientists, clinicians, and women who have either donated or frozen their oocytes or received those of another woman---to trace how the history of human oocytes' perceived value intersects with the biological and social life of women. Demonstrating how oocytes have come to be understood as discrete and scarce biomedical objects open to valuation, management, and exchange, Waldby examines the global market for oocytes and the power dynamics between recipients and the often younger and poorer donors. With this exploration of the oocyte economy and its contemporary biopolitical significance, Waldby rethinks the relationship between fertility, gendered experience, and biomedical innovation.

Full Product Details

Author:   Catherine Waldby
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9781478004721


ISBN 10:   147800472
Pages:   248
Publication Date:   06 May 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  vii Introduction  1 1. Temporal Oocytes: Fertility and Deep Time  23 2. Twentieth-Century Oocytes: Experiment and Experience  41 3. Precious Oocytes: IVF and the Deficit Spiral  64 4. Global Oocytes: Medical Tourism and the Transaction of Fertility  88 5. Cold-Chain Oocytes: Vitrification and the Formation of Corporate Egg Banks  119 6. Private Oocytes: Personal Egg Banking and Generational Time  114 7. Innovation Oocytes: Therapeutic Cloning and Mitochondrial Donation  161 Conclusion  191 Appendix  199 Notes  205 References  211 Index  231

Reviews

What Waldby presents so compellingly is that there is an oocyte economy. Eggs have value and meaning, indeed they have different values and meanings in different contexts. -- Jane Maienschein * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *


What Waldby presents so compellingly is that there is an oocyte economy. Eggs have value and meaning, indeed they have different values and meanings in different contexts. -- Jane Maienschein * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences * The Oocyte Economy is not only a rigorous study but a riveting read. -- Claire Horn * Women's Review of Books * This book offers a fascinating foray into the changing meaning of human oocytes for Western women and reproductive scientists. As such, it is a must-read for scholars of reproduction, and for related courses in anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and the history of science and medicine. -- Marcia C. Inhorn * Bulletin of the History of Medicine * A thought-provoking and original examination of the emergence of an economy premised on deep cultural beliefs about the meaning of oocytes.... Likely to become required reading in medicine, gender, and in the interdisciplinary field of reproduction. -- Rosanna Hertz * Society *


Author Information

Catherine Waldby is Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University and the author and coauthor of several books, including Clinical Labor: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Bioeconomy, also published by Duke University Press.

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