Women & Children First

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) makes babies and parents at once.Drawing on science and technology studies, feminist theory, and historical andethnographic analyses of ART clinics, Charis Thompson explores the intertwining ofbiological reproduction with the personal, political, and technological meanings ofreproduction. She analyzes the "ontological choreography" at ART clinics -- thedynamics by which technical, scientific, kinship, gender, emotional, legal, political, financial, and other matters are coordinated -- using ethnographic datato address questions usually treated in the abstract. Reproductive technologies, says Thompson, are part of the increasing tendency to turn social problems intobiomedical questions and can be used as a lens through which to see the resultingchanges in the relations between science and society.After giving an account of thebook's disciplinary roots in science and technology studies and in feministscholarship on reproduction, Thompson comes to the ethnographic heart of her study.She develops her concept of ontological choreography by examining ART'snormalization of "miraculous" technology (including the etiquette of technologicalsex); gender identity in the assigned roles of mother and father and theconservative nature of gender relations in the clinic; the naturalization oftechnologically assisted kinship and procreative intent; and patients' pursuit ofagency through objectification and technology. Finally, Thompson explores theeconomies of reproductive technologies, concluding with a speculative and polemicallook at the "biomedical mode of reproduction" as a predictor of future relationsbetween science and society.