The Reproduction of Race in Virtual Gamete Donation Markets

• In Event: The New Bioeconomy in Eggs: Innovations, Interruptions and Regenerations in the Management of Human Oocytes

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the production and reproduction of race in two spheres, the virtual and the clinical. Online profiles of gamete sellers are an important informational and marketing tool: with the click of a button, a completed profile, and a password, consumers can access huge amounts of intimate information about individuals willing to sell their gametes for compensation. In the clinic, “matching” the race/ethnicity of egg and sperm sellers to consumers is a well-recognized practice to ensure seamless kinship and family formation in third party reproduction. How is race as a concept defined, produced, regulated, and consumed in these spheres, particularly in an age of ever-expanding choice in a transnational reprogenetic marketplace? Moreover, what ethical questions are displaced or redefined about the role of race in reprogenetic markets? In this preliminary study, I use ethnography and textual analysis to analyze over 500 online egg and sperm seller profiles across over 15 gamete donation agencies and clinics in the United States, demonstrating how the neoliberal management of health, as well as the prevalence of big data, has transformed the meaning and messages about racial identity in third party reproduction in the United States.

Author

• Erin Heidt-Forsythe, Pennsylvania State University