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  • Death without Life: Grievability and IVF

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    74638_1.pdf (656.7Kb)
    Author(s)
    Ellison, David A
    Karpin, Isabel
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Ellison, David A.
    Year published
    2011
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Although in vitro fertilization patients faced with the problem of surplus cryopreserved embryos have a number of disposition options, we focus on one procedure known as "compassionate transfer." In this scenario the thawed embryo is placed in the patient's vagina, where it will not develop further, or it is transferred to the uterus without the benefit of fertility-enhancing hormones at a point in the menstrual cycle unreceptive to implantation. The embryo destined for disposal is removed from the realm of technological possibility and "returned" to the female body for a homely death. Arguably this is consistent with related ...
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    Although in vitro fertilization patients faced with the problem of surplus cryopreserved embryos have a number of disposition options, we focus on one procedure known as "compassionate transfer." In this scenario the thawed embryo is placed in the patient's vagina, where it will not develop further, or it is transferred to the uterus without the benefit of fertility-enhancing hormones at a point in the menstrual cycle unreceptive to implantation. The embryo destined for disposal is removed from the realm of technological possibility and "returned" to the female body for a homely death. Arguably this is consistent with related mourning rituals that rely on embodied contact between the living and the dead such as the practice of wearing a lock of hair from a child or loved one. We document some contemporary practices that reconstitute the dead in keepsake form, where they may reside both inside and outside the body of the mourner. Our focus, though, is on the commemoration of embryo disposition in the form of compassionate transfer, as a ritual confounding the conditions of grievability: this is not-yet-life succumbing to something that resembles death. While debates continue over the embryo's status as life, new forms of disposition practices such as compassionate transfer are developing in response to the emotional experience of embryo loss. As a death scene in progress, we take the measure of its fabrication, considering its form, significance, and legal and cultural complexity.
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    Journal Title
    South Atlantic Quarterly
    Volume
    110
    Issue
    4
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-1382258
    Copyright Statement
    © 2011 Duke University Press. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
    Subject
    Culture, Gender, Sexuality
    Cultural Studies
    Literary Studies
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/44006
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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