Merleau-Ponty Noémie
Department of Sociology (ReproSoc), Univeristy of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Reprod Biomed Soc Online. 2020 Dec 13;11:96-103. doi: 10.1016/j.rbms.2020.12.001. eCollection 2020 Nov.
YouTube hosts two records of interest for those interested in how human-stem-cell-derived gametes are made: one from the USA and one from France. Human-stem-cell-derived gametes, sometimes called 'artificial gametes' or 'synthetic gametes', are the result of in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG). IVG is a technology in the making that attempts to create oocytes and spermatozoa from embryonic cells or skin cells. This article presents some elements of these videos in written form, and asks what information is publicly available to 'think with', and what is not, when it comes to imagining the future of human reproduction. Focusing on the staging of science, this article argues that these videos represent ways of understanding and interrogating science, and display epistemological performances. The comparison is helpful to analyse how a shared global bioscientific authority is valued in these two locations, pointing at areas 'back stage' that the social sciences can illuminate.
对于那些对人类干细胞衍生配子的制造方式感兴趣的人来说，YouTube上有两条相关的记录：一条来自美国，一条来自法国。人类干细胞衍生配子，有时也被称为“人工配子”或“合成配子”，是体外配子发生（IVG）的产物。IVG是一项正在发展中的技术，试图从胚胎细胞或皮肤细胞中创造出卵母细胞和精子。本文以书面形式呈现了这些视频中的一些内容，并探讨了在想象人类生殖未来时，哪些信息是公开可得以供思考的，哪些不是。聚焦于科学的呈现方式，本文认为这些视频代表了理解和审视科学的方式，并展示了认识论表现。这种比较有助于分析在这两个地方，共享的全球生物科学权威是如何被重视的，同时也指出了社会科学可以阐明的“幕后”领域。
