Prenatal Imaging: Egg Freezing, Embryo Selection and the Visual Politics of Reproductive Time
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Authors
Van de Wiel, Lucy
Publication Date
2018-10-16Journal Title
Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
ISSN
2380-3312
Publisher
University of Toronto Libraries - UOTL
Volume
4
Issue
2
Pages
1-35
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Van de Wiel, L. (2018). Prenatal Imaging: Egg Freezing, Embryo Selection and the Visual Politics of Reproductive Time. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 4 (2), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v4i2.29908
Abstract
<jats:p>In the last decade, two influential new reproductive technologies have been introduced that are changing the face of in vitro fertilization (IVF): egg freezing for “fertility preservation” and time-lapse embryo imaging for embryo selection. With these technologies emerge alternative visual representations of the assisted reproductive process and its relation to time. First, frozen egg photographs provide a lens onto contemporary reconfigurations of reproductive aging and stage a life-death dyad between the frozen cell and the embodied self, which drives treatment rationales for egg freezing. Second, time-lapse embryo imaging creates visual recordings of developing embryos in the incubator; the resultant quantified visual information can then be repurposed as a tool for predicting embryo viability. As these two sets of prenatal images reference dying eggs and non-viable embryos, they demonstrate a necropolitics of reproductive time, in which not only the generativity of new life but also the encounter with the death, finitude and fallibility of reproductive substances drives a widespread and intensified engagement with reproductive technologies.</jats:p>
Keywords
Reproductive technologies, IVF, Time-lapse embryo imaging, Prenatal imaging, Feminism, Visual culture
Sponsorship
Alan Turing Institute
Funder references
Wellcome Trust (100606/Z/12/Z)
Wellcome Trust (100606/Z/12/A)
Alan Turing Institute (Unknown)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v4i2.29908
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/287236
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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