Paper short abstract:

This paper shows partial results of a larger ongoing research project on embryo donation between Italy and Spain started in 2020. I will focus on comparing local articulations of moral concepts related to embryo donation and which narratives are used by my informants.

Paper long abstract:

As soon as in vitro fertilization (IVF) was established in 1970 (Banchoff, 2011), the practical legal and ethical question of embryos cryopreservation emerged. “Extra embryos” may be transferred immediately to other patients’ wombs, disposed of, or cryopreserved for embryo donation for family building (EDFB).

EDFB was first reported in 1983 (Trounsen et al., 1983), and since then it has been described as a controversial practice that raises many bioethical and moral concerns and questions around the globe. It an accepted practice in numerous countries, like in Spain (Bankowski et al., 2005), while it is forbidden in others, like in Italy (Calhaz-Jorge et al. 2020). Literature shows dominant discourse found was related to the life discourse, namely embryo as a human life (Goedeke et al., 2017). In anthropology, EDFB remains an understudied phenomenon, the exception being a few publications based on data literature on embryo donation based on data collected in California and examining Christian embryo adoption programs which relate to them as frozen souls needed to be saved (Collard et al., 2011). Interestingly, embryo donation programs prefer the language of adoption (Helm, 2008) with intended parents describing it as a “morally preferable alternative” and framing it as a salvific action towards early human life (Cromer, 2018). My paper shows partial results of a larger ongoing research project on embryo donation between Italy and Spain started in 2020. I will focus on comparing local articulations of moral concepts related to embryo donation and which narratives are used by my informants.