Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies

by Charis Thompson

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) makes babies and parents at once. Drawing on science and technology studies, feminist theory, and historical and ethnographic analyses of ART clinics, Charis Thompson explores the intertwining of biological reproduction with the personal, political, and technological meanings of reproduction. She analyzes the "ontological choreography" at ART clinics—the dynamics by which technical, scientific, kinship, gender, emotional, legal, political, financial, and other matters are coordinated—using ethnographic data to address questions usually treated in the abstract. Reproductive technologies, says Thompson, are part of the increasing tendency to turn social problems into biomedical questions and can be used as a lens through which to see the resulting changes in the relations between science and society. After giving an account of the book's disciplinary roots in science and technology studies and in feminist scholarship on reproduction, Thompson comes to the ethnographic heart of her study. She develops her concept of ontological choreography by examining ART's normalization of "miraculous" technology (including the etiquette of technological sex); gender identity in the assigned roles of mother and father and the conservative nature of gender relations in the clinic; the naturalization of technologically assisted kinship and procreative intent; and patients' pursuit of agency through objectification and technology. Finally, Thompson explores the economies of reproductive technologies, concluding with a speculative and polemical look at the "biomedical mode of reproduction" as a predictor of future relations between science and society.

Genres: Academic

360 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2005

Reviews

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely someone's dissertation, with all of the weight that that entails. The first few chapters, on STS and feminist theory, do an admirable job surveying deep and complicated fields. Thompson is deeply knowledgable about reproductive technology, both as an ethnographic investigator in clinics, and as someone who conceived via ART. She walks the delicate line between the personal and the objective. That said, the writing is dense for no other reason than density, "ontological choreography" (whatever it is) is overkill for this work. I wanted to sit her down and ask "What does this all mean in words of no more than 2-syllables?" Alas, no luck.

[Victor Gonzalez · Rating 2 out of 5]

You are born, you grow, you reproduce and then you die; people might think that this are the basic stages of a life circle. If you are born you are sure that one day you will die but that every person that is born will grow or be able to reproduce is not real. People may die at an early age for multiple reasons (but that won’t be discussed in here) preventing them from growing. In the area of reproduction not everyone has the same advantage as others. You might focus on work and live this part for later and then find out that your biological clock has pass (mostly in the case of women), or you can have suffer an injury that makes you infertile, or you were just born like that. They are many reasons for people to be infertile. Sometimes is unfair how easily some couples are able to have kids but how difficult is for others. Thanks to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) it has come more easily for infertile people to reproduce.


ART has made infertile people be able to have a child, but this technology has been discriminatory in a certain way. The cost of using this technology is so high that it permits access only to middle and high class of society. The problem with this is not the technology by itself but the policy that backs up that technology. In some countries the use of ART is covered by insurance, as an example we can mention Israel where every women will have full subsidy for her first two kids[i]. The basic problem between ART and access to it is based on the policy that governs that technology and in the case of the US few states mandate insurance coverage and not all insurance cover the use of ART. This means that in the case of the US the usage of ART is limited to those that have the ability to pay by their own. The usage of ART is to treat infertility a problem that affects people in all economic groups. But in the case of the US the problem is wider than the access to ART, is the access to basic health.

In the book ‘Making Parents: the Ontological Choreography of Reproduction Technologies’ Charis Thompson provides the insight of the ART world. Thompson shows the issues that surround ART from a philosophical, moral and theoretical perspective where she compares the technology, the professional protocols and the clinical spaces with the emotions of the parents to be (consumers of ART). Thompson makes this study based on observation of two ART clinics that she worked on, as well as her perspective from being a patient of ART, using a medical ethnography method. The main focus of her study is the cultural mechanisms that makes parents and shapes kinship in the process of producing babies.


In the first part of the book Thompson provides the theoretical research on the field of ART from the perspective of science and technology studies as well as from feminist studies (both her field of expertise). This part provides more a historical description of the work done in the field but not a full framework where her work will be based on.

The second part Thompson provides the insight of the ART. It is in this part that Thompson explains the normalization practices, how the patients become part of the technology and how the technology shapes them to become parents. Then she discusses the part of infertile men and how they come to be fathers. After that she discusses the process of construction, protection of kinship with the usage of different strategies. Thompson finalize this part by exposing how women use agency for dealing with their own problem of infertility, also showing how the perception of each women changes based on the stage of the process she is at, and the success or failure she has experience. In this last part Thompson reminds us how infertile people choose to have their reproduction intimacies reduce to medical and technical maneuvers just so that eventually they can have a kid.

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong introductory chapters on theory and methodology (STS and feminist scholarship), extremely well researched. Adequate-to-dreadful academic prose. I can't recall an academic book I've fallen asleep reading so many times.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

utterly fascinating stuff... i totally recommend chapter 5 for the kinship and family nut readers!