Bio-Identification, Value Creation and the Reproductive Bioeconomy: Insights from the Reprogenetics Sector in Spain

TLDR: Pavone et al. as discussed by the authors studied the process of value creation, appropriation and distribution sustaining the reprogenetics sector of the Spanish reproductive bioeconomy, and found that value does not proceed entirely from the extraction and appropriation of the latent (re)generative capabilities of the human body, but rather from the incorporation of reproductive tissue and practices in the capitalist regime of accumulation.

Abstract: This chapter addresses the social, economic, legal and political articulations of the reproductive bioeconomy in Spain . More specifically, it studies the process of value creation , appropriation and distribution sustaining the reprogenetics sector of the Spanish reproductive bioeconomy . Drawing from 28 semi-structured interviews with IVF patients undergoing PGD/PGS in Spain, Pavone suggests that value does not proceed entirely from the extraction and appropriation of the latent (re)generative capabilities of the human body , but rather from the incorporation of reproductive tissue and practices in the capitalist regime of accumulation . This incorporation seems to be accomplished through a process of bio-identification, which stabilizes recalcitrant bio-objects , like PGD/PGS embryos , and attributes value to them as they get incorporated into a reprogenetics value chain based on four, overlapping, technical, normative, social and economic steps.