In 2003 it became legal to carry out human embryonic stem (hES) cell research in Denmark using embryos that are considered `spare' in connection with fertility treatment. The public debate preceding the change of the Fertility Act presented the `spare' embryo as a biological fact and discussed whether it was possible and morally acceptable to connect a given stock of `spare' embryos to the stem cell lab. This paper tells a different story. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a fertility clinic in Copenhagen and among stem cell researchers, we argue that `spare' embryos are not straightforward biological facts. Rather, complex decision-making processes constitute embryos as `spare' and thus as possible objects of exchange between couples in fertility treatment, stem cell researchers and future citizens in need of regenerative medicine. The ongoing fact-making of the `spare' embryo in the fertility clinic reveals the network of relationships and conflicting responsibilities in which clinicians are positioned. Using the spatial metaphor of a moral landscape we explore how clinicians try out new moral pathways when seeking alternative ways to obtain and classify embryos as `spare'. We argue that changing moral landscapes and `spare' embryos are being co-produced in the development of hES cell research.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Thesis
Levy, Jean Elizabeth;
(2007)
Controlling the Course of Scientific Advance: The Case of Human Embryology
(/isis/citation/CBB001560939/)
Article
Michael, Mike;
Wainwright, Steven P.;
Williams, Clare;
(2005)
Temporality and Prudence: On Stem Cells as “Phronesic Things”
(/isis/citation/CBB000850148/)
Article
Maria Rosa Montinari;
(2020)
Adult stem cells in cardiovascular medicine: historical overview and ethical issues
(/isis/citation/CBB295820660/)
Article
Maurizio Balistreri;
(2018)
La ricerca sugli embrioni umani alla luce dei nuovi scenari riproduttivi: considerazioni sull’individualità dell’embrione e sui limiti alla sperimentazione
(/isis/citation/CBB886964637/)
Thesis
Kohlhausen, Kimberly A.;
(2005)
The Ethics of Ovum Donations vs. Sales
(/isis/citation/CBB001561709/)
Article
Hurlbut, William B.;
(2006)
Science, Religion, and the Politics of Stem Cells
(/isis/citation/CBB000720144/)
Essay Review
Fordyce, Lauren;
(2013)
“Life” Histories: Examining Embryo and Fetal Politics in Modern Western Democracies
(/isis/citation/CBB001566485/)
Thesis
Mignin, Erin N.;
(2012)
Embryonic Policies: Reproductive Technology and Federal Regulation
(/isis/citation/CBB001567404/)
Thesis
Dubow, Sara;
(2003)
Ourselves Unborn: Fetal Meanings in Modern America
(/isis/citation/CBB001560691/)
Article
Miguel García-Sancho;
Dmitriy Myelnikov;
(2019)
Between mice and sheep: Biotechnology, agricultural science and animal models in late-twentieth century Edinburgh
(/isis/citation/CBB803418234/)
Book
Banchoff, Thomas F.;
(2011)
Embryo Politics: Ethics and Policy in Atlantic Democracies
(/isis/citation/CBB001212716/)
Article
Sarah Franklin;
(2019)
Developmental Landmarks and the Warnock Report: A Sociological Account of Biological Translation
(/isis/citation/CBB966472875/)
Article
Almeida, Carla;
DalCol, Franciane Lovati;
Massarani, Luisa;
(2013)
Controvérsia científica no telejornalismo brasileiro: um estudo sobre a cobertura das células-tronco no Jornal Nacional
(/isis/citation/CBB001420697/)
Thesis
Jeong, Yeonbo;
(2012)
Science, Nation, and Women's Bodies: Economies of Reproductive Tissues and Stem Cell Research in South Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB001567393/)
Article
Ryuma Shineha;
(2016)
Attention to Stem Cell Research in Japanese Mass Media: Twenty-Year Macrotrends and the Gap between Media Attention and Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues
(/isis/citation/CBB032798904/)
Chapter
Lorenzo Beltrame;
(2015)
Cellule e ordine sociale: il dibattito italiano sulle cellule staminali
(/isis/citation/CBB813029159/)
Book
Squier, Susan Merrill;
(2004)
Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine
(/isis/citation/CBB000550805/)
Article
Wilson, Duncan;
(2011)
Creating the “Ethics Industry”: Mary Warnock, in vitro Fertilization and the History of Bioethics in Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001036118/)
Article
Maehle, Andreas-Holger;
(2011)
Ambiguous Cells: The Emergence of the Stem Cell Concept in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB001220424/)
Article
Elena Nicolaou;
Giulio Mecacci;
(2022)
To Whom do Our Memories Belong? About the Burden to Remember and the Freedom to Forget
(/isis/citation/CBB047376708/)
Mefisto: Rivista di medicina, filosofia, storia
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Social Research
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Be the first to comment!