Bodies, power and property in transnational reproductive economies Lecture series organized by Stefanie Graefe, Irina Herb, Susanne Lettow in the context of the research project Property in the human body in the context of transnational economies of reproduction.

Daisy Deomampo (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Fordham University): The Price of Eggs: Racial Capitalism and Notions of Value

Oocyte (egg) donation, or the process by which a person provides eggs to another for the purposes of assisted reproduction, is a thriving aspect of the fertility industry. My focus on Asian Americans, the fastest-growing minority group in the country and the group most likely to seek third-party eggs in their own pregnancies, offers a critical perspective on the intersections of race, reproduction, and capitalism. In this lecture I consider how eggs become valued and commodified. How do ideas about race influence notions of value in the con-text of egg donation? How is value extracted and circulated? How might the value of eggs reflect racialized notions of worth and quality? By illustrating how eggs become valued as forms of capital—racialized assets to be shared, purchased, and sold—I argue that racial capitalism is intrinsic to egg donation, with consequences for how donors themselves treat their assets and frame their eggs in ways that may increase their value.

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