Extra embryos: The ethics of cryopreservation in Ecuador and elsewhere

Abstract

Through ethnographic comparison with Ecuador, I localize North American and European ethical debates about embryos. In Ecuador, some in vitro fertilization (IVF) practitioners and patients do whatever they can to preserve the life of embryos through donation or cryopreservation. For this group, embryos are embroiled in debates about life, as they commonly are in North America. However, other Ecuadorians do not view embryos through debates about life. Instead, these IVF practitioners and patients let embryos die rather than freeze them, to regulate the legitimate bounds of kin relations. These contrasting models of life ethics and kin ethics illuminate ideologies of religion, kinship, and personhood in Ecuador. In addition, this comparison demonstrates that the location of embryos in a framework of kinship prevents their circulation and exchange, whereas the North American and European debates about the human life of embryos allow for their continued circulation in the globalized reproductive marketplace.

L’embryon humain en AMP, éléments pour une approche relationnelle

“…Ils s'efforcent non seulement d'étudier les changements que produisent la FIV et la congélation des embryons (Bateman, 2009;Thompson, 2005;Collard et Kashmeri, 2011;Roberts, 2007;Franklin et Roberts, 2001;Becker, 2000), mais ils montrent aussi que ces techniques touchent de manière croissante la vie des personnes à travers le monde (Anderson et Hecht, 2002;Arnold, 2000;Hayden, 2003;Inhorn, 2003;Roberts, 2007). Bateman et Salem (1998), notamment, ont montré que la sortie de l'embryon hors du corps de la femme et la congélation prolongée, non seulement modifiaient le contexte et l'équilibre des relations se construisant autour de cet être, mais entrainaient aussi une augmentation de l'importance de la place des soignants.…”

Exploring appropriation of “surplus” ova and embryos in Indian IVF clinics

“…Dickenson (2006, cited in Dickenson andAlkorta Idiakez 2008, 127) argues "much bioethical analysis simply ignored the way in which 'the lady vanishes' in the SCNT stem cell technologies." Few ethnographic studies deal with the procurement of eggs for research (Thompson 2005, Roberts 2007, Bharadwaj and Glasner 2009) and what qualifies an embryo to be regarded as spare (Scully andRehman-Sutter 2006, Svendsen andKoch 2008).…”

Unpacking the 'Spare Embryo'

“…The universality of this view is now being challenged from several sides. Writing on the Ecuadorian experience, Roberts (2007) shows how an 'ethics of kin' considers the destruction of spare embryos more acceptable than circulating them between genetically unrelated families. Compared with this, the Danish clinicians seem to practise a 'therapeutical ethics' that puts the interests of the patient (i.e.…”