Unpacking the 'Spare Embryo': Facilitating Stem Cell Research in a Moral Landscape.  

Oleh:

Svendsen, Mette N. ; Koch, Lene

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Social Studies of Science vol. 38 no. 1 (Feb. 2008), page 93.
Topik: donation; IVF; moral landscapes; organizational relations; spare embryos; stem cell research
Fulltext: 93.pdf (247.54KB)

Isi artikel

In 2003 it became legal to carry out human embryonic stem (hES) cell research in Denmark using embryos that are considered ‘spare’ in connection with fertility treatment. The public debate preceding the change of the Fertility Act presented the ‘spare’ embryo as a biological fact and discussed whether it was possible and morally acceptable to connect a given stock of ‘spare’ embryos to the stem cell lab. This paper tells a different story. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a fertility clinic in Copenhagen and among stem cell researchers, we argue that ‘spare’ embryos are not straightforward biological facts. Rather, complex decision-making processes constitute embryos as ‘spare’ and thus as possible objects of exchange between couples in fertility treatment, stem cell researchers and future citizens in need of regenerative medicine. The ongoing fact-making of the ‘spare’ embryo in the fertility clinic reveals the network of relationships and conflicting responsibilities in which clinicians are positioned. Using the spatial metaphor of a moral landscape we explore how clinicians try out new moral pathways when seeking alternative ways to obtain and classify embryos as ‘spare’. We argue that changing moral landscapes and ‘spare’ embryos are being co-produced in the development of hES cell research.

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