AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF ASSISTED REPRODUCTION PRACTICES IN ARGENTINA Kelly Amanda ...

377 Pages·2007·2.72 MB·English

by  Kelly Raspberry

CONFLICTED CONCEPTIONS:
AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF ASSISTED REPRODUCTION PRACTICES IN
ARGENTINA

Kelly Amanda Raspberry

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of Anthropology.

Chapel Hill
2007

Approved By:

Sue Estroff

Marisol de la Cadena

Judith Farquhar

William Lachicotte

Michele Rivkin-Fish

Barry Saunders
©2007
Kelly Amanda Raspberry
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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ABSTRACT

Kelly Amanda Raspberry: Conflicted Conceptions: An Ethnography of Assisted
Reproduction Practices in Argentina
(Under the direction of Sue Estroff)

In this ethnography, I focus on the community of reproductive medicine
professionals in Argentina to examine how assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are
transformed according to local conditions of practice, as well as how they are
transformative of the societies they newly inhabit. Based on three continuous years of
ethnographic, interview and archival research conducted primarily in Buenos Aires, my
findings reveal that the production of ART in a given place is not a culturally-neutral
process, but rather involves local forms of science, medicine, modernity, morality and
choice.
In chapter one, I give a contextual history of how ART began in Argentina, and
locate today’s Argentine infertility specialists within a transnational network of training,
scientific prestige, innovation and competition. In chapter two, I examine the specificities
of the local production of ART in Buenos Aires, which include a series of moral positions
on family, motherhood, and the role of the Catholic Church in medical practice, as well
as creative maneuverings around legal, economic and political constraints. In chapter
three, I analyze the practice of gamete donation in Argentina, in which beliefs about
genetic inheritance, options for family making, and the market-side of reproductive
medicine all intersect. In chapter four, I focus on the problematic of the morally and
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legally ambiguous embryo, and examine two techniques in particular, embryo
cryopreservation and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), to illustrate how medical
and scientific protocols are translated to fit local conditions of practice. Throughout these
chapters I argue that the production of these medical technologies are shifting deeply
rooted beliefs about the sanctity of human life and the role of technology in manipulating
that life. I conclude that currently in Argentina the reproductive medicine professionals
who provide ART to the public are society’s moral guardians, diagnosing the healthy
body and family, defining when personhood begins, and dictating what protections are
due human life. In the last instance, this cultural analysis is revealing not only of assisted
reproduction practices in Argentina, but also circulates back to inform the production of
ART as a global medical technology.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many
people. Dissertation field research was generously supported by the National Science
Foundation Cultural Anthropology division (Dissertation Improvement Grant), the Social
Science Research Council (International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship), and the
Wenner Gren Foundation (Dissertation Fieldwork Grant). Pre-dissertation field research
was supported by the Ford Foundation (Summer Research Grant) and the Tinker
Foundation (Field Research Travel Grant). Dissertation writing was made possible
through generous assistance from the UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School (On-Campus
Dissertation Completion Research Fellowship).
My deepest gratitude goes to those in Argentina and Chile who allowed me access
to their clinics, laboratories and thoughts. In particular I thank the many people in Buenos
Aires who welcomed me into their professional and personal lives. Special mention goes
to my porteño friends who helped me make this research a reality: Natalia Adamo for her
excellent transcription work, Sabrina de Vincentiis for her explanations and enthusiasm,
and Fabio Tirra for listening. Thank you also to Sara Ackerman, Mary Ajideh, Joy Noel
Baumgartner, Monika Bieri, Michelle Cohen, Kathy Julian, and Brenda Werth: you
enrich my life with love. Thank you to my non-traditional family, Colleen, Jody, Kabir,
Laura, and Mac, for your years of support. To my advisors, I have learned so much from
all of you. Marisol de la Cadena, Sue Estroff, Judith Farquhar, William Lachicotte,
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Michele Rivkin-Fish, Barry Saunders: thank you. And finally, thank you Miguel for
helping me to understand the untranslatable of life and love.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................…...viii

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………..……ix

ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………….....…xii

INTRODUCTION: Life Under the Microscope and the Cultural
Politics of Assisted Reproduction in Argentina…………….……………............1

INTERLUDE I: Living and Working with Assisted Reproductive
Technology……………………………………………………………………...45

CHAPTER ONE: The Gestation and Birth of ART in Argentina…………………...….61

INTERLUDE II: “High Complexity” Aspirations and Transferences:
The In Vitro Meeting of Egg and Sperm in a Buenos Aires Infertility Clinic....120

CHAPTER TWO: Ideologies In Vitro and the Daily Performance
of Assisted Reproductive Technologies………………….……...………….….151

INTERLUDE III: Twelve Tries, One Daughter……………………………………….226

CHAPTER THREE: “The Fertile Market”: Argentine Variations
on Adoption and Donation……………………………………………………...233

INTERLUDE IV: “I Would Not Freeze My Children”: Cryopreserved
Embryos and a Legal Guardian in Buenos Aires.................................................287

CHAPTER FOUR: The Genesis of Embryos and Ethics In
Vitro: Embryo Cryopreservation and PGD………………………..……………294

INTERLUDE V: “God Answered our Prayers”: The Miracle of IVF
at a Reduced Cost………………………………………………...……………..337

CONCLUSION: Life Beyond the Microscope…………………………………………342

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………353
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LIST OF TABLES

Table

1. Chronology of significant political and ART-related events
for a contextual history of ART in Argentina………………………...…………70

2. Biological developmental stages of the in vitro embryo……………….………300

3. Laboratory procedures in Argentina based on biological
stages of embryo development…………………………………………………304

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

1. Tradition and modernity in Buenos Aires………………………….…...……..1

2. "With a little help from science." Viva magazine
cover-story on ART treatments in Argentina……………………….…...…...19

3. Typical "street scene" in Buenos Aires: child performer
in Recoleta neighborhood………………………………………….………...30

4. Plaza San Martin: downtown Buenos Aires…………………………………36

5. Surgery area in ART center in Buenos Aires……………………………..…39

6. Embryology lab and scopes in Buenos Aires……………………………..…40

7. Embryos as visual decoration at the FLASEF
2002 meetings in Punta del Este……....…………………………………..…42

8. Clarín article: "The First Babies Created by
Fertilization in the Country Turn 18 Years Old."…………………………....61

9. "IVF 1985" with names of original CEGyR team…………………………...91

10. Painting on wall inside diagnostic reproductive medicine
lab (L). Cross hanging inside director’s personal office (R)……...................95

11. Bank Boston in the downtown area of Buenos Aires……………………...109

12. Tanks and Armed Police in front of the Casa Rosada in
Buenos Aires. First anniversary of 2001 protest: December 20, 2002……..111

13. Red Cross volunteers. First anniversary of 2001
protest: December 20, 2002………………………………………………...111

14. Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo protesting payment
of the external debt………………………………………………………....112

15. "We are all Argentines." Government ad for a public celebration of
25th of May (the national revolution day) at the Plaza de Mayo…………..116

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16. Chart of International Relationships and Formation
of ART clinics in Argentina……………………………………...………...119

17. Surgery area—where aspirations and transferences
are performed—in an infertility clinic in Buenos Aires……………………120

18. Scope and Thermal Plate in workchamber…………………………………129

19. Eggs Ready for ICSI injection, after hyaluronidase wash
and stripping of the cumulus cells………………………………………….132

20. Makler Counting Chamber (L). Sperm under Makler
counting chamber (R)………………………………………………………135

21. Micromanipulation microscope…………………………………………….136

22. Micropipette and sperm selected for ICSI………………………………….139

23. ICSI: two seconds post-injection of sperm into egg,
the mark of the pipette is still visible……………………………………….140

24. Nine Day Three embryos (not Augustina’s), varying
in quality. Five to eight cells………………………...………………...…...142

25. Small Cryopreservation Machine……………………………………...…...145

26. Cryopreservation tank……………………………………………………....145

27. Monitor in the surgery room connected to microscope
in the laboratory, used to view in vitro embryos…………………………..148

28. Nativity scene in Entre Ríos province of Argentina………………………..151

29. Full-page advertisement in a magazine: "The ticking clock
that you carry within”………………………………………………………165

30. Logo for a shop inside the Abasto shopping mall in Buenos
Aires that sells baby accessories……………………………………………165

31. National Congress Building in downtown Buenos Aires…………………..176

32. Catholic Church Cathedrals in the city of Salta, Salta
Province (L); and San Isidro, Greater Buenos Aires (R)…………………...182

33. Mural outside a public hospital in Buenos Aires…………………………...209

34. Public hospital in Buenos Aires………………………………………….…212
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