Reproductive Bodies and Bits: Exploring Dilemmas of Egg Donation Under Neoliberalism

Abstract

The use of third-party eggs has steadily increased throughout the past 3 decades. In turn, debates have emerged within feminist scholarship concerning whether the technology of egg “donation” is oppressive or libratory, perpetuates “motherhood mandates” or subverts biogenetic notions of motherhood, and whether it commodifies women's bodies or offers women new ways to join the labor market using their reproductive body parts. This article expands on these tensions and argues for a feminist psychological approach that focuses analytic attention on the material body to explore dilemmas of motherhood and commodification within the U.S. health care context of neoliberalism.