Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Soc Stud Sci. 2022 Jun;52(3):425-446. doi: 10.1177/03063127221083869. Epub 2022 Mar 17.
The multibillion-dollar fertility industry promotes standardization in fertilization laboratories. Transnational pharmaceutical and biotechnological giants distribute a wide range of fertility products, from embryo culture mediums and incubator technologies to add-ons such as time-lapse embryo monitoring. These technologies are designed to standardize and automate knowledge production regarding embryonic viability. More effective knowledge production enables the more effective selection of embryos for transfer, which in turn leads to more future babies and enables economic scaling-up. Drawing on two multi-sited ethnographic studies at eight fertility clinics in Finland during 2013-2020, this article discusses how knowledge about embryos is produced in the processes and practices of embryo culture. We argue that automation and standardization in clinical practice are not always perceived as economically desirable. Sometimes standard technologies do not replace hands-on knowledge production, although they may transform it. The technologies are also perceived as modifying the object of knowledge itself in undesired or unnecessary ways. In such cases, concerns are raised regarding the best interests of patients, embryos and future babies, who might be better served by masterful laboratory craftwork. We conclude that embryo culture is not only a site of knowledge production - one that aims to make babies and parents through standard and craftwork knowledge practices - but also a site of multiple bio-economies of assisted reproduction, some of which resist automation and standardization.
价值数十亿美元的生育产业促进了受精实验室的标准化。跨国制药和生物技术巨头广泛分销生育产品，从胚胎培养液和孵化器技术，到延时胚胎监测等附加产品。这些技术旨在标准化和自动化胚胎活力相关知识的生成。更有效的知识生成能够更有效地选择可移植的胚胎，从而带来更多的未来婴儿，并实现经济规模化。本文通过对 2013 年至 2020 年期间在芬兰的 8 家生育诊所进行的两项多点民族志研究，讨论了胚胎培养过程和实践中胚胎知识是如何产生的。我们认为，临床实践中的自动化和标准化并不总是被视为经济上可取的。有时，标准技术并不会取代手工知识生成，尽管它们可能会改变这种生成方式。这些技术也被认为以不理想或不必要的方式改变了知识本身的对象。在这种情况下，人们会对患者、胚胎和未来婴儿的最佳利益表示担忧，他们可能会从精湛的实验室技艺中受益更多。我们的结论是，胚胎培养不仅是知识生产的场所——通过标准化和技艺知识实践来制造婴儿和父母——也是辅助生殖多种生物经济的场所，其中一些场所抵制自动化和标准化。
