Description
In order to ship sperm samples around the globe sperm donors need to ejaculate into specimen cups. These ejaculates are then processed by bio-technicians at the laboratory of each sperm bank before private clients or fertility clinics can use portions of these samples for either home inseminations or possible assisted treatments at clinics. Much attention has been given to the regulatory frameworks that are set into place in order to standardize and control the work that turns young men’s ejaculates into exchangeable specimens. Yet, as rich ethnographic research on reproductive technologies has shown, standards and official guidelines are only one part of what work at a laboratory looks like. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at Danish and American sperm banks I want to look at the affective encounters in sperm bank laboratories and the role these encounters play when handling and processing sperm. The technicians in the labs face the challenge of having to work with a substance deemed taboo. But contrary to the notion that sperm is a fluid not supposed to be touched outside of intimate encounters with one self or other sexual partners I want to argue that the routinized working procedures at sperm bank laboratories actually build on the affective encounters with sperm, and are not simply a way of dealing with them. Approaching work with (human) bodily material from this perspective helps to understand what else is at stake besides regulatory instances when biomedical exchanges enfold in contemporary contexts.| Period | 13 Jun 2013 |
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| Event title | Encounters and Engagements: Creating new agendas for medical anthropology |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Tarragona, SpainShow on map |