Ukrainian Market of Eggs: Political Economy Analysis

• In Event: Capitalizing Fertility: Feminist STS Approaches to Reproductive Bioeconomies - II

Abstract

This paper is analyzing how reproductive labor power and biological products are extracted in Ukraine and introduced into circulation on the global market as commodities. In this context Ukraine becomes a supply side in the reproductive bioeconomy oriented specifically toward Western (European) purchasers, a development informed by Ukraine’s minimal regulation of ARTs, geographical proximity to the EU border, low costs of medical services and biological products, and plentiful availability of willing young Caucasian donors and surrogate mothers with proven fertility (children of their own). To eliminate the inconvenience of intended parents traveling abroad for ova donation, the ova bank in Ukraine provides an option of selecting the donor and purchasing her oocytes online. Then, a courier delivers frozen biomaterials to IVF clinics in various countries or the ova donor travels there for donation. By exploring how these transnational ova circulation arrangements developed over time, I aim to understand the intricacies, dynamics and contradictions of the emerging reproductive bio-material markets. This paper maps the transnational routes of ova harvested in Ukraine and identifies how the social relations of ova production and exchange condition the reproductive labor of Ukrainian ova donors, as well as generation and appropriation of economic value of ova. This study builds upon 15 months of participant observation at the ova bank/fertility unit in Ukraine, as well as 150 interviews with ova donors, surrogate mothers, medical professionals and recruitment agents in various cities in Ukraine during years 2015-2018.

Author

• Polina Vlasenko, Indiana University