Saving embryos in stem cell science and embryo adoption

Cromer, Risa

doi:10.1080/14636778.2018.1546574

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…This article contributes to the small but growing area within embryo and fetal personhood scholarship on questions of racialization (Denbow 2016;Mason 1999;Morgan 2009Morgan , 2012Musial 2014) by tracing how racial and reproductive politics are inextricably bound. 10 The argument developed here extends from ethnographic research conducted during 2008-2013 within US embryo adoption programs (Cromer 2017(Cromer , 2018, which served as an entry point into the national personhood movement and its invocations of race. Data analyzed include three examples of personhood advocacy involving promotional media, a court case proceeding, and a Congressional bill.…”

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confidence: 94%

“…The argument developed here extends from ethnographic research conducted during 2008–2013 within US embryo adoption programs (Cromer , ), which served as an entry point into the national personhood movement and its invocations of race. Data analyzed include three examples of personhood advocacy involving promotional media, a court case proceeding, and a Congressional bill.…”

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confidence: 98%

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Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Cromer

2019

Transforming Anthropology

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Opponents of abortion in the United States have long made strategic comparisons between abortion and slavery to advance their movement. Within the past two decades, a White‐led branch of the American “pro‐life” movement began invoking racial categories and movements for racial justice to advocate for the socio‐legal recognition of frozen embryos as persons. Extending from ethnographic research with proponents of “embryo personhood,” this article examines three examples of personhood advocacy—a lawsuit, promotional video, and legislative bill—that instrumentalize race through strategic comparisons between embryos and Black Americans, and personhood advocates and racial justice leaders. More than misleading comparisons, invoking race in personhood advocacy underscores this radical movement's threat to reproductive and racial justice. Antiabortion politics of recognition present another durable link between racial and reproductive politics in the United States.

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confidence: 94%

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confidence: 98%

Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Cromer

2019

Transforming Anthropology

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“…A first series of articles concern more specifically the distribution of elements of the human body: biobanks circulate by redefining the value of what is circulated (Kim 2018), detach biological entities from their original bodies and attach them to other subjects (Bärnreuther 2018), circulate cell lines (Merleau-Ponty, Vertommen, and Pucéat 2018). A second part presents texts which focus on the uses: in these cases, what is at stake is what embryos are made to do (Cromer 2018), how to archive biomaterials in order to make then participate to a museal endeavor (Van Allen 2018) and how to distribute the agency between humans and nonhumans in forestry practices (Milanovic and Lefèvre 2018).…”

Section: Biological Resources In the Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biobanks and the reconfiguration of the living

Milanovic

Merleau-Ponty

Pitrou

2018

New Genetics and Society

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“…Christians opposed to abortion and human embryonic stem cell research developed 'embryo adoption' in the late 1990s. This practice allows donors and recipients to play an active role in mutual selection, and promotes the recognition of embryos as rights-bearing persons (Collard and Kashmeri, 2011;Cromer, 2018;Frith et al, 2011;Paul et al, 2010). In 1997, the California-based Nightlight Christian Adoptions Agency began the Snowflakes embryo adoption programme with the goal of 'rescuing' leftover embryos from 'frozen orphanages' through attempting implantation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Our family picture is a little hint of heaven’: race, religion and selective reproduction in US ‘embryo adoption’

Cromer¹

2020

Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online

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People use selective reproductive technologies (SRT) in various family-making practices to assist with decisions about which children should be born. The practice of 'embryo adoption', a form of embryo donation developed by white American evangelical Christians in the late 1990s, is a novel site for reconceptualizing SRT and examining how they function among users. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2008 and 2018 on US 'embryo adoption', this study provides an anthropological analysis of media produced by and about one white evangelical couple's race-specific preferences for embryos from donors of colour. This article shows how racializing processes and religious beliefs function as mutually reinforcing SRT for some 'embryo adoption' participants. Evangelical convictions justify racialized preferences, and racializing processes within and beyond the church reinforce religious acts. Race-specific preferences for embryos among white evangelicals promote selective decision-making not for particular kinds of children, a current focus in studies of SRT, but for particular kinds of families. This study expands the framework of SRT to include selection for wanted family forms and technologies beyond biomedical techniques, such as social technologies like racial constructs and religious convictions. Broadly, this article encourages greater attention to religion within analyses about race and reproduction by revealing how they are deeply entwined with Christianity, especially in the USA. Wherever constructions of race and religious convictions co-exist with selective reproductive decision-making, scholars should consider race, reproduction and religion as inextricable, rather than distinct, domains of analysis.

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Saving embryos in stem cell science and embryo adoption

Cited by 23 publications

References 53 publications

Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement

Biobanks and the reconfiguration of the living

‘Our family picture is a little hint of heaven’: race, religion and selective reproduction in US ‘embryo adoption’

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