Sex Cells The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm [Hardcover]

Unimaginable until the twentieth century, the clinical practice of transferring eggs and sperm from body to body is now the basis of a bustling market. InSex Cells, Rene Almeling provides an inside look at how egg agencies and sperm banks do business. Although both men and women are usually drawn to donation for financial reasons, Almeling finds that clinics encourage sperm donors to think of the payments as remuneration for an easy job. Women receive more money but are urged to regard egg donation in feminine terms, as the ultimate gift from one woman to another.Sex Cellsshows how the gendered framing of paid donation, as either a job or a gift, not only influences the structure of the market, but also profoundly affects the individuals whose genetic material is being purchased.

Rene Almelingis Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

What happens when sex cells sell? Do human bodies become degraded objects of commerce? Challenging simplistic accounts of commodification, Almeling offers a compelling analysis of contemporary markets for eggs and sperm. A superb contribution to 21st century economic sociology. -Viviana A. Zelizer, author ofEconomic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy

This is a highly informative book. Almeling provides a balanced approach to this highly controversial subject. Although you might be conflicted by the ethical issues, you will definitely be extremely well-informed when you finish this book. -Alan H. DeCherney, MD, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Almeling offers a wonderfully thoughtful analysis and an innovative cultural lens for viewing the gendered lives of sex cells and their commodification in the contemporary USA. -Rayna Rapp, author ofTesting Women, Testing the Fetus: The Impact of Amniocentesis in America

[Almeling] pulls back the curtain on the egg and sperm market. . . . Sex Cls;