Thirty-five years after its initial success as a form of technologically-assisted human reproduction, and five million miracle babies later, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has become a routine procedure worldwide. In Biological Relatives, Sarah Franklin explores how IVF s normalization has changed how both technology and biology are understood. Drawing on anthropology, feminist theory, and science studies, Franklin charts IVF s evolution from an experimental research technique into a global technological platform used for a wide variety of applications - from genetic diagnosis and livestock breeding to cloning and stem cell research. She contends that despite its ubiquity, IVF remains a highly paradoxical technology that confirms the relative and contingent nature of biology, while creating new biological relatives. Using IVF as a lens, Franklin presents a bold and lucid thesis linking technologies of gender and sex to reproductive biomedicine, contemporary bio-innovation, and the future of kinship.
| | Biological Relatives: IVF, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship |  | 75.96 |  |
 | Biological Relatives: Ivf, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship (Hardcover) |  | 79.43 | |