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Social Studies of Science
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Unpacking the 'Spare Embryo'

Facilitating Stem Cell Research in a Moral Landscape

Mette N. Svendsen

Department of Health Services Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen K, m.n.svendsen{at}pubhealth.ku.dk

Lene Koch

Department of Health Services Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen K, koch{at}pubhealth.ku.dk

In 2003 it became legal to carry out human embryonic stem (hES) cell research in Denmark using embryos that are considered `spare' in connection with fertility treatment. The public debate preceding the change of the Fertility Act presented the `spare' embryo as a biological fact and discussed whether it was possible and morally acceptable to connect a given stock of `spare' embryos to the stem cell lab. This paper tells a different story. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a fertility clinic in Copenhagen and among stem cell researchers, we argue that `spare' embryos are not straightforward biological facts. Rather, complex decision-making processes constitute embryos as `spare' and thus as possible objects of exchange between couples in fertility treatment, stem cell researchers and future citizens in need of regenerative medicine. The ongoing fact-making of the `spare' embryo in the fertility clinic reveals the network of relationships and conflicting responsibilities in which clinicians are positioned. Using the spatial metaphor of a moral landscape we explore how clinicians try out new moral pathways when seeking alternative ways to obtain and classify embryos as `spare'. We argue that changing moral landscapes and `spare' embryos are being co-produced in the development of hES cell research.

Key Words: donation • IVF • moral landscapes • organizational relations • spare embryos • stem cell research

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 38, No. 1, 93-110 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312707082502
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