West is best: Affective assemblages and Spanish oöcytes

Abstract

This article employs the concept of affective assemblage to discuss how fertility travelers make sense of their decision to travel to Spain for oöcyte donation. Motherhood is brought into being through racialized and gendered discourses on ova exchange; idealized and feminized (fertile and gift-giving) Spanish donor bodies. In their accounts, fertility travelers employ a narrative in which oöcytes become necessary spare parts, yet also, exotic substances with temperament and racialized nationality as well as collective bodies-shaped by the recipient woman's body, intent, and desire. In this manner, kinship is created through shared blood and space, desire and intent while differences between recipients and donors are minimized. The directionality of desire, hope, and imagination has the effect of naturalizing transnational egg donation and transforming it into a shared western European femininity of sorts.

Transforming social contracts: the social and cultural history of IVF in Denmark

“…Almeling, 2011 ). Because of the current status of egg donation in Denmark, Danish women wanting to use donated egg cells have to go abroad ( Kroløkke, 2014a , Kroløkke, 2014b ).…”

Third-Party Reproduction: Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Commodification and Biopolitics

“…The following study illustrates how reproflows circlute within and across national borders. Kroløkke (2014) interviewed women and couples who travel from Denmark to Spain for fertility treatment using Spanish egg donors. Spain is a hotspot location for trans-European travel for oocyte donation due to its liberal legal regulatory framework on reproductive technologies and a sufficient pool of donors who are compensated for anonymous donations (Kroløkke, 2014, p. 58).…”

“…Spain is a hotspot location for trans-European travel for oocyte donation due to its liberal legal regulatory framework on reproductive technologies and a sufficient pool of donors who are compensated for anonymous donations (Kroløkke, 2014, p. 58). Kroløkke (2014) explains the popularity of Spanish oocytes among Danish women by the way the clients imagine similarities and differences between themselves and the donors. The donors are described as better quality oocytes than those from Eastern European clinics.…”

“…The donors are described as better quality oocytes than those from Eastern European clinics. Kroløkke (2014) reveals an important aspect of how racial similarities and differences are constructed by the clients, as Western 'whiteness' is expressed in the narratives of the clients as desirable characteristic. Kroløkke's (2014) study shows that the construction of whiteness can have an important role in cross-border reproductive travel, especially when the clients are middle to upper class white women.…”

“…Kroløkke (2014) reveals an important aspect of how racial similarities and differences are constructed by the clients, as Western 'whiteness' is expressed in the narratives of the clients as desirable characteristic. Kroløkke's (2014) study shows that the construction of whiteness can have an important role in cross-border reproductive travel, especially when the clients are middle to upper class white women. This article also reveals that an analysis on race should be included in the methodology and can be studied from the narratives of interviewees, the promotional material and the visual representations on the clinics' websites.…”