Undoing Motherhood: Collaborative Reproduction and the Deinstitutionalization of U.S. Maternity [Hardcover]

In 1978 the world’s first “test-tube baby” was born from in vitro fertilization (IVF), effectively ushering in a paradigm shift for infertility treatment that relied on partially disembodied human reproduction. Beyond IVF, the ability to extract, fertilize, and store reproductive cells outside of the human body has created new opportunities for family building, but also prompted new conflicts about rights to and control over reproductive cells. In collaborative forms of reproduction that build on IVF technologies, such as egg and embryo donation and gestational surrogacy, multiple women may variously contribute to conception, gestation/birth, and the legal and social responsibilities for rearing a child, creating intentionally fragmented maternities.Undoing Motherhoodexamines the implications of such fragmented maternities in the post-IVF reproductive era for generating maternity uncertainty—an increasing cultural ambiguity about what does and should constitute maternity.Undoing Motherhoodexplores this uncertainty in the social worlds of reproductive medicine and law.
 In 1978 the world’s first IVF baby was born, ushering in a paradigm shift in reproductive medicine. IVF and collaborative reproduction (egg/embryo donation, gestational surrogacy) create new opportunities and conflicts about reproduction and parentage.Undoing Motherhoodexamines the connected issues of fragmented and uncertain maternity in the post-IVF reproductive era.KATHERINE M. JOHNSONis a professor of sociology and director of gender and sexuality studies at Tulane University. Her research focuses on the sociology of reproduction, and explores themes such as stratified reproduction, postmodern family building, motherhood, and medical and technological interventions into reproduction. Through this work, she has examined a range of reproductive topics including infertility, collaborative reproduction, abortion, childbirth, and breaslS(