God's Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the AndesAssisted reproduction, with its test tubes, injections, and gamete donors, raises concerns about the nature of life and kinship. Yet these concerns do not take the same shape around the world. In this innovative ethnography of in vitro fertilization in Ecuador, Elizabeth F.S. Roberts explores how reproduction by way of biotechnological assistance is not only accepted but embraced despite widespread poverty and condemnation from the Catholic Church. Roberts’ intimate portrait of IVF practitioners and their patients reveals how technological intervention is folded into an Andean understanding of reproduction as always assisted, whether through kin or God. She argues that the Ecuadorian incarnation of reproductive technology is less about a national desire for modernity than it is a product of colonial racial history, Catholic practice, and kinship configurations. God’s Laboratory offers a grounded introduction to critical debates in medical anthropology and science studies, as well as a nuanced ethnography of the interplay between science, religion, race and history in the formation of Andean families. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abortion adoption anabela andean andrés’s anonymous Anthropology argued arturo asked assisted reproduction assisted reproductive technologies baby beauty biological birth blood body C-section Cadena Catholic child Church clinicians Consuelo context cryopreservation cultivation daughter debates didn’t donate eggs economic Ecuador Ecuadorian IVF egg donation egg donors elite embryo adoption embryo transfer exchange extra embryos female fertility follicles freeze embryos Frida frozen embryos gamete gamete donation genes genetic God’s Guayaquil haciendas hormones human husband Indians indigenous infertility involved IVF clinics IVF cycle IVF doctors IVF patients IVF practitioners Javier Jorge kinship labor laboratory biologist Latin america Linda live look Manuel material mestizo Molina’s clinic mother nation neoliberal North american Padilla percent physicians practice pregnant Quiteño Quito race racial raza realidad relatedness relations relationship sacoto sandra sexual skin color social sperm donors tatiana technologies telenovelas teresa tion told United Vanessa wanted Weismantel woman