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5 ■ Parenthood and Kinship in IVF for Humans and Animals On Traveling Bits of Life in the Age of Genetics AMADE M’CHAREK and GRIETJE KELLER W ith the Human Genome Project initiative of the late 1980s, and thecompletionof theveryfirsthumangeneticmap,in2000,genes became the traveling bits of life par excellence. They became the center of attention, intervention, and study in scientific practice but also an issue and a matter of concern in public discourse and in everyday life. Obviously, these bits of life travel between generations, with the passing on of genetic material from parents to oªspring. Nevertheless, in the context of in vitro fertilization (IVF) this tra‹c may be less straightforward while still aªecting configurations of parenthood or kinship. As a technology, IVF itself does not stay put. It has become itself a “traveling technology.” IVF is no longer called upon only in infertility cases but is at the heart of various other technologies, such as stem cell research, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), nucleus (ooplasm) transfer, and animal and cattle breeding. IVF thus plays a part in diªerent scientific and medical practices. In this chapter, we are interested in the question of what IVF technologies “do” in diªerent practices. In particular, we pursue the tra‹c of genetic material and the role attributed to such bits of life in the conception of parenthood and kinship. WealsocontrastanddiscusstwoquitediªerentIVFcases:thepracticeof cell-nucleus transfer for human reproduction, and the practice of IVF in cattle breeding. It was the interesting parallels and diªerences between these two practices that prompted our choice to compare them in this chapter. They are obviously dissimilar in that they pertain to diªerent species, but the cases discussed here are not altogether unrelated . In terms of technical options, bovine embryology is usually considered a test61 ing ground for human IVF. Nevertheless, the discourses connected with the two practices are quite distinct. Issues of parenthood, gender, and even national identity are much more clearly articulated in cattle breeding, whereas they are rather mu›ed in the case of human IVF. The two cases discussed here allow us also to discussissuesof parenthoodandgenderaswellashowindividualsarelinkedthrough technology. To these ends, we analyze published material (whether in print or on the Internet) and scientific practice. We oªer an ethnographic reading of this material in the sense that we take into account not only the worlds represented but also the ones mobilized and enacted through them. Technologies, as we will show, are at the heart of enacting (possible) worlds and possible links between individuals.1 IN VITRO FERTILIZATION: PROCEDURES AND RISKS Because IVF is taken for granted in the practices that we discuss in this chapter, we shall briefly address the procedure and some of its eªects. In the clinic, an IVF treatment starts with hormone therapy that causes the female reproductive system to produce up to twelve egg cells at the same time instead of only one per month (this is so-called superovulation). During this period, the Graafian follicles are monitored through blood tests and echography.2 Once the egg cells have matured, and while they are still being monitored by echography, they are harvested through a hollow needle inserted into the uterus. The egg cells are placed in a Petri dish3 containing a medium and are fertilized within a number of hours. After three to five days, one or two embryos are placed back into the uterus. Good “rest embryos,” as they are called, are also set aside and frozen in case they have to be placed in the uterus at a later stage. If the initial attempt leads to a successful pregnancy, or if the woman does not wish to proceed with the treatment, the rest embryos will either be disposed of or, in some countries, used for scientific research. Although reproductive technologies like IVF have become routine, a woman undergoing such a treatment has usually traveled a long hard path (Pasveer and Heesterbeek 2001; Cussins 1998; van der Ploeg 1998; Rapp 1999; Ginsburg and Rapp 1995). Once on the path of IVF, the woman consents to a procedure that extends well beyond the walls of the clinic, and whose success remains uncertain. In order for the treatment to be eªective, arrangements and adaptations have to be made that involve care and monitoring of the woman’s body around the clock, for long periodsof time(PasveerandHeesterbeek2001).4 AsPasveerandHeersterbeekargue, the success of IVF treatment is evaluated...

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