Main description:

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.

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