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Short abstract

By drawing on two ethnographic studies at fertility clinics in Finland and US, this academic paper asks how IVF laboratory environments - material, chemical and contextual – are proliferated in embryo culture, and how environmental complexity and multiplicity reflect multiple bio-economies.

Long abstract

The In vitro fertilization laboratory, like all laboratories, is a carefully controlled environment, aiming to mimic the optimal reproductive environment. During embryo culture, embryos in the laboratories are cocooned inside layered artificial environments, like a Russian doll, re/produced by culture media, incubator and air filter technologies. Prior research shows that just like any physical environment, laboratory environments themselves can affect embryonic development and cause embryo toxicity. Laboratories have come to increasingly be understood as containing environmental factors which might (epigenetically) influence the health of present and future babies and generations. This paper is concerned with how environments - material, chemical and contextual – are proliferated at the clinics. Drawing on two ethnographic studies at seven fertility clinics in a Nordic Welfare state of Finland and US during 2014-2026, we show how this environmental complexity is enacted at the clinics by multitude of actors, including the transnational fertility bioindustry responding to the perception of environmental complexity by producing different kinds of new technologies and pharmaceuticals to market. We argue that the clinical-technical practices produce environments that in many ways hinder possibility for human life despite the hype around some of these technologies in the fertility sector. In such cases, concerns are raised over the best interests of patients, embryos and future babies, and who is liable. We conclude that embryo culture is not just a site for multiple and complex environments but also a site of multiple bio-economies of assisted reproduction, reflecting the differences in the market economies of both countries.