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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - globalfertilitychain (Tracing the global fertility chain- A new political economy of outsourced reproduction)

Teaser

Summary

Global Fertility Chains: a new political economy of outsourced reproduction

Since the mid-2000s transnational surrogacy has transformed into a popular and lucrative niche in the global fertility market, mostly helping economically well-off, Western infertile/dysfertile couples in making their procreative dreams come true. As part of what has been termed the new sexual division of labour, more and more women from the Global South and North are commodifying their reproductive tissues, capacities and services by working as surrogates or egg donors. Surrogacy and egg donation arrangements have caused a lot of moral concern and upheaval among scholars and policy makers. Similar to â€œolderâ€ discussions on other feminised forms of â€œdirty labourâ€ such as sex work, arguments are often strongly moralising. Market critics emphatically oppose the commodification of bodily tissues in favour of a gift economy based on altruistic donations and informed consent. Market proponents, in contrast, encourage the commercialisation of reproductive tissues and the remuneration of tissue providers in an attempt to overcome issues of scarcity. This project aims to transcend these moral dilemmas by foregrounding a feminist political economy analysis of one â€˜actually existingâ€™ fertility chain that is becoming increasingly popular, i.e. between Israel/Palestine and Georgia. By ethnographically following the reproductive trail of Israeli intended parents and their fertility brokers to Georgia, where available and affordable surrogates are recruited, the project empirically investigates the gendered and racialised regimes of labour, property and value creation in the surrogacy industry. By mapping the intricate ways in which reproductive tissues and labour move in and out of commodity state as they move through different regimes of governance in the fertility chain, it analyses the volatile boundaries between gift and commodity, value and waste, labour and donation, property and entitlement that structure the reproductive bio-economy.

Research objectives
1. Working towards strengthening the conceptual and theoretical framework on assisted reproduction, globalisation and bio-economies by highlighting the intersecting hierarchies of race, gender and class. My aim is to add a perspective from topical research on (settler)colonial studies and political economy to the well-established STS and feminist techno-science literature on assisted reproduction.
2. Analysing the political economy of global fertility chains by documenting the governance of highly gendered and racialised regimes of labour and property in the repro-flow between Palestine/Israel and Georgia.
3. Mapping the shifting commodity status and changing bio-value of reproductive tissues and workers throughout their trajectory in the global fertility chain, and probing dominant dichotomies between gift-commodity, labour-donation, waste-value, property-entitlement in the reproductive bio-economy.
4. Formulating policy recommendations on the governance of transnational surrogacy and oocyte vending and suggesting alternative, socially responsible ways of configuring the reproductive bio-economy that avoid exploitation, human degradation and trafficking as well as (Eurocentric) paternalism.
Since the mid-2000s transnational surrogacy has transformed into a popular and lucrative niche in the global fertility market, mostly helping economically well-off, Western infertile/dysfertile couples in making their procreative dreams come true. As part of what has been termed the new sexual division of labour, more and more women from the Global South and North are commodifying their reproductive tissues, capacities and services by working as surrogates or egg donors.

Work performed

As described in detail in Technical Report, part B this fellowship consisted of work packages: training, research, dissemination and outreach. I followed a few courses and workshops on political economy, video production, research management and career planning at King\'s College London. In terms of research, I conducted fieldwork research in Israel/Palestine and Georgia on the international surrogacy industry between these two countries. I conducted more than 60 interviews with surrogates, egg cell providers, fertility agents, fertility doctors, intended parents, civil society actors. I also conducted non-participatory observations in fertility clinics and agencies in Tbilisi.
I have developed an innovative feminist political approach to understand the reproductive bioeconomy, centred on the concept of global fertility chains, which takes into account a global network of multiple actors and scales, including the central role of the (supra)national state, women\'s paid and unpaid reproductive labour and geographies of uneven development.
In terms of dissemination, I have participated in and organised various international events, including reading groups, workshops and conferences. I have successfully applied for additional funding to organise workshops, conferences and outreach activities. I have authored and co-authored various journal papers, book chapters and a book proposal that are either published or under review. I have also written more accessible articles and blogposts for a broader audience and organised workshops and seminars for civil society and grassroots actors on globalised reproduction and reproductive labour. I have started an academic-artistic collaboration with audio-visual artist Ailien Reyns on a project called Tools for Reproductive Labour which will result in exhibitions in London, Bruges and Brussels. I have taught guest lectures and supervised students at King\'s College London in the undergraduate and postgraduate program on global health and social medicine.

Final results

My Marie Curie research project on global fertility chains is making a significant impact beyond Academia.
- It helped to propose more emancipatory and socially responsible ways of configuring the reproductive bio-economy by connecting it with the organisational, mobilizational and advocacy work of grassroots, community-based and civil society organisations involved with womenâ€™s and workersâ€™ rights in United Kingdom, Belgium, Israel/Palestine and Georgia.
- It is making an impact on the cultural-artistic sector through the co-creative audio-visual project â€˜Tools for Reproductive Labourâ€™, which is an ongoing artistic-academic collaboration with the Belgian artist Ailien Reyns.
- Finally, the Marie Curie project had a significant positive impact on my personal career. Receiving generous Marie Curie research funding has enabled me to conduct both innovative theoretical work and multi-sited fieldwork in Israel/Palestine and Georgia, which is already contributing to the state-of-the-art scholarship on globalised reproduction. Being based at a world-class research hub such as Kingâ€™s College London also helped me to create and maintain durable research networks with expert scholars in my field. Lastly, the prestigious fellowship has served as a spring board for other grants and research posts (including Wellcome Trust grant funding, post as Research Associate at Cambridge).