Undoing Motherhood: Collaborative Reproduction and the Deinstitutionalization of U.S. Maternity (Families in Focus)

In 1978 the world’s first “test-tube baby” was born from in vitro fertilization (IVF), effectively ushering in a paradigm shift for infertility treatment that relied on partially disembodied human reproduction. Beyond IVF, the ability to extract, fertilize, and store reproductive cells outside of the human body has created new opportunities for family building, but also prompted new conflicts about rights to and control over reproductive cells. In collaborative forms of reproduction that build on IVF technologies, such as egg and embryo donation and gestational surrogacy, multiple women may variously contribute to conception, gestation/birth, and the legal and social responsibilities for rearing a child, creating intentionally fragmented maternities. __Undoing Motherhood__ examines the implications of such fragmented maternities in the post-IVF reproductive era for generating maternity uncertainty—an increasing cultural ambiguity about what does and should constitute maternity. __Undoing Motherhood__ explores this uncertainty in the social worlds of reproductive medicine and law. "In 1978 the world's first "test tube baby" was born from in vitro fertilization (IVF), effectively ushering in a paradigm shift for infertility treatment that relied on partially disembodied human reproduction. Beyond IVF, the ability to extract, fertilize, and store reproductive cells outside of the human body has created new opportunities for family building, but also prompted new conflicts about rights to and control over reproductive cells. In collaborative forms of reproduction that build on IVF-technologies, such as egg and embryo donation, and gestational surrogacy, multiple women may variously contribute to conception, gestation/birth, and then legal and social responsibilities for rearing a child, creating intentionally fragmented maternities. Undoing Motherhood examines the implications of such fragmented maternities in the post-IVF reproductive era for generating maternity uncertainty-an increasing cultural ambiguity about what does and should constitute maternity. Undoing Motherhood explores this uncertainty in the social worlds of reproductive medicine and law"-- Provided by publisher Contents 1. A New Maternity Uncertainty? 2. Conceiving Motherhood and the Repronormative Family 3. Losing My Genetics: Paternal versus Maternal Concerns 4. Contingent Maternities? Maternal Claims Making in Collaborative Reproduction 5. Designating Maternity: Contested Motherhood and the Courts 6. Adopting or Resisting New Maternities? 7. Concluding Thoughts: Maternity Somewhere in Between Acknowledgments Notes References Index About the Author In 1978 the world’s first IVF baby was born, ushering in a paradigm shift in reproductive medicine. IVF and collaborative reproduction (egg/embryo donation, gestational surrogacy) create new opportunities and conflicts about reproduction and parentage. Undoing Motherhood examines the connected issues of fragmented and uncertain maternity in the post-IVF reproductive era.