Good Quality : The Routinization of Sperm Banking in China

From its crude and uneasy beginnings thirty years ago, Chinese sperm banking has become a routine part of China’s pervasive and restrictive reproductive complex. Today, there are sperm banks in each of China’s twenty-two provinces, the biggest of which screen some three thousand to four thousand potential donors each year. Given the estimated one to two million azoospermic men--those who are unable to produce their own sperm--the demand remains insatiable. China’s twenty-two sperm banks cannot keep up, spurring sperm bank directors to publicly lament chronic shortages and even warn of a national ‘sperm crisis’ ( jingzi weiji ). Good Quality explores the issues behind the crisis, including declining sperm quality in the country due to environmental pollution, as well as a chronic national shortage of donors. In doing so, Wahlberg outlines the specific style of Chinese sperm banking that has emerged, shaped by the particular cultural, juridical, economic and social configurations that make up China’s restrictive reproductive complex. Good Quality shows how this high-throughput style shapes the ways in which men experience donation and how sperm is made available to couples who can afford it. « From its crude and uneasy beginnings thirty years ago, Chinese sperm banking has become a routine part of China's pervasive and restrictive reproductive complex. Today, there are sperm banks in each of China's twenty-two provinces, the biggest of which screen some three thousand to four thousand potential donors each year. Given the estimated one to two million azoospermic men, those who are unable to produce their own sperm, the demand remains insatiable. China's twenty-two sperm banks cannot keep up, spurring sperm bank directors to publicly lament chronic shortages and even warn of a national sperm crisis (jingzi weiji). Good Quality explores the issues behind the crisis, including declining sperm quality in the country due to environmental pollution, as well as a chronic national shortage of donors. In doing so, Wahlberg outlines the specific style of Chinese sperm banking that has emerged, shaped by the particular cultural, juridical, economic and social configurations that make up China's restrictive reproductive complex. Good Quality shows how this high-throughput style shapes the ways in which men experience donation and how sperm is made available to couples who can afford it. »-- Résumé de l'éditeur "From its crude and uneasy beginnings thirty years ago, Chinese sperm banking has become a routine part of China's pervasive and restrictive reproductive complex. Today, there are sperm banks in fifteen of China's twenty-two provinces, the biggest of which screen some 2,000-3,000 potential donors each year. With an estimated one to two-million azoospermic men--those who are unable to produce their own sperm--the demand remains insatiable. China's fifteen sperm banks cannot keep up, spurring sperm bank directors to publicly lament chronic shortages and even warn of a national 'sperm crisis' (jingzi weiji). Good quality explores the issues behind the crisis, including declining sperm quality in the country due to environmental pollution, as well as a chronic national shortage of donors. Whalberg also outlines the specific style of Chinese sperm banking that has been shaped by the particular cultural, juridical, economic and social configurations that make up China's restrictive reproductive complex. Good Quality shows how this high-throughput style shapes the ways in which men experience donation and sperm is made available to couples who can afford it"--Provided by publisher Cover......Page 1 Good Quality......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 List of Abbreviations......Page 16 Introduction: Sperm Crisis......Page 18 1. The Birth of Assisted Reproductive Technology in China......Page 46 2. Improving Population Quality......Page 75 3. Exposed Biologies......Page 94 4. Mobilizing Sperm Donors......Page 117 5. Making Quality Auditable......Page 148 6. Borrowing Sperm......Page 174 Conclusion: Routinization......Page 205 Coda......Page 209 Notes......Page 212 References......Page 222 Index......Page 240 From crude and uneasy beginnings, sperm banking has become a routine part of China’s pervasive and restrictive reproductive complex within the space of thirty years. It covers the introduction of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to China to address infertility, the expansion of the use of donor sperm in cases in which the male partner suffers from a genetic disease, and other issues, such as the availability and screening of potential sperm donors.