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Emotion, embodiment, and reproductive colonialism in the global human egg trade

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  • Diane Tober
  • Charlotte Kroløkke

Abstract

In the transnational fertility industry, individuals have differently positioned bodies, ranked by race, class, education, socioeconomic status, gender, and citizenship. Different forms of labor support the transnational fertility market, bringing geopolitical, and social inequities to the fore. While some people need wombs, eggs, or sperm to create their families—and have the means to pay for third‐party reproductive services—others emerge as suppliers of reproductive labor, and still others as coordinators or service agents in the international fertility industry. Building upon contemporary feminist social science and postcolonial research on reproductive travel and labor, this article explores three intersecting components: the forces that influence reproductive travel and cross‐border egg donation; how emotion and meaning are framed in clinical settings to recruit a young, healthy, able‐bodied workforce; and the embodied experiences of women who travel across borders to provide eggs for pay. Drawing upon donor and professional interviews, and multisited online and ethnographic fieldwork in fertility clinics, we explore the linkages between emotional choreography and the creation of a bioavailable workforce for the global fertility trade. Here, we examine how local and cross‐border egg provision illuminate global reproductive hierarchies—what we call “reproductive colonialism”—in transnational reproduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Diane Tober & Charlotte Kroløkke, 2021. "Emotion, embodiment, and reproductive colonialism in the global human egg trade," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1766-1786, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:5:p:1766-1786
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12637
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Klaus Hoeyer, 2013. "Exchanging Human Bodily Material: Rethinking Bodies and Markets," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-94-007-5264-1, January.
    2. Virginie Rozée & Sayeed Unisa & Elise de La Rochebrochard, 2019. "Sociodemographic characteristics of 96 Indian surrogates: Are they disadvantaged compared with the general population?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-9, March.
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