The Oocyte Economy

“An exceptionally compelling account of the emergence of an economy that has fully disrupted the conventional mechanics of family formation and romantic narratives of singular mother-child relations. In this beautifully written and elegantly argued work, Catherine Waldby invites us to consider the oocyte as potent actuator of past and present identities and new, previously unimagined forms of distributed maternity and to explore the multiply constituted landscape of complex parental rights and obligations to which its use gives rise.” — Bronwyn Parry, author of Trading the Genome: Investigating the Commodification of Bio-Information

“Drawing on extensive fieldwork and rich empirical material, The Oocyte Economy follows the manifold trajectories of women's reproductive cells, investigating how they intersect with matters of race, gender and class. Catherine Waldby's new book not only provides the best overview to date of how oocytes are mobilized in multiple forms of commercialization and capitalization, but significantly expands our understanding of contemporary reproductive biopolitics.” — Thomas Lemke, author of Foucault’s Analysis of Modern Governmentality: A Critique of Political Reason

“Catherine Waldby continues her meditation on tissue economies with this brilliant examination of women's reproductive cells. Beautifully written, this book will be of interest to anyone who cares about the politics of reproduction, and it is likely to become required reading for scholars of gender, medicine, and embodiment.” — Rene Almeling, author of Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm