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THE OOCYTE MARKET AND SOCIAL EGG FREEZING: From scarcity to singularity

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  • Catherine Waldby

Abstract

Human oöcytes (eggs) have proved quite resistant to the gift system that regulates much tissue donation in the developed nations. With a few exceptions, they move from donor to recipient through incentive systems, including high rates of compensation and frank payment. Recently, women have turned in small but growing numbers to private oöcyte banking as a way to preserve and defer their fertility. This paper draws on interviews with both clinicians and clients to consider the ways that women use private banking to manage fertility. It argues that the move from purchasing third-party fertility to private banking is a move from a scarcity economy, where lack is resolved in exchange (Simmel), to an economy of singularities (Karpik) where the autologous genetic signature of the materiel renders it non-commensurable. Hence, its value can only be realised through preservation and private retention.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Waldby, 2015. "THE OOCYTE MARKET AND SOCIAL EGG FREEZING: From scarcity to singularity," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 275-291, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:8:y:2015:i:3:p:275-291
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2015.1039457
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    1. Lucien Karpik, 2010. "Valuing the Unique: The Economics of Singularities," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9215.
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    1. Kylie Baldwin, 2017. "‘I Suppose I Think to Myself, That's the Best Way to Be a Mother’: How Ideologies of Parenthood Shape Women's Use of Social Egg Freezing Technology," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 22(2), pages 20-34, May.
    2. Kılıç, Azer & Göçmen, İpek, 2018. "Fate, morals and rational calculations: Freezing eggs for non-medical reasons in Turkey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 19-27.
    3. Laura Perler & Carolin Schurr & Nora Komposch & Mirko Winkel & Pedro Alejandro Cervantez Rodríguez, 2024. "Reproductive geopolitics: Governing in/fertile bodies in Mexico’s past and present," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 42(1), pages 102-124, February.

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