Substantial Relations: Making Global Reproductive Medicine in Postcolonial India

191 Pages·2021·4.951 MB·English

by  Sandra Bärnreuther

SUBSTANTIAL
RELATIONS

SUBSTANTIAL
RELATIONS
Making Global Reproductive Medicine
in Postcolonial India
Sandra Bärnreuther
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON
T hanks to generous funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the

ebook editions of this book are available as open access volumes through the

Cornell Open initiative.

C opyright © 2021 by Cornell University

T he text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or

parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact

Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca,

New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

F irst published 2021 by Cornell University Press

ISBN 978-1-5017-5819-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-5017-5820-1 (pdf)

ISBN 978-1-5017-5821-8 (epub)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021944996

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7298/0rf-ds33

C hapter 1 was first published in Z eitschrift für Ethnologie 143:41–60 under the

title “From Urine in India to Ampoules in Europe: The Relational Infrastructure

of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.” An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared

in the article “Innovations ‘Out of Place’: Controversies over IVF Beginnings

in India between 1978 and 2005,” Medical Anthropology 35 (1): 73–89,

DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2015.1094066, https://www.tandfonline.com/.
Für Cilli und Hans

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Note on Transliteration xiii

Introduction 1

1. From Urine to Ampoule: The Commodity Chain

of a Hormone 22

2. From Dismissal to Recognition: A Contested Claim 38

3. From Hobby to Industry: How IVF Diversified 58

4. The Clinic and Beyond: Reproductive Temporalities 76

5. When Cells Circulate: Unwanted Ties 101

6. Inside the Laboratory: Embryo Ethics 119

Epilogue 136

Notes 141

References 151

Index 169

vii

Acknowledgments

Research always constitutes a collaborative endeavor. Nevertheless, I could not
have imagined the countless people who would help along the way when I started
this project more than ten years ago. I am deeply grateful to all research part­
ners who patiently and generously shared their knowledge and lives with me.
I hope this book does justice to the diverse experiences connected to reproduc­
tive medicine in India.
Although I cannot possibly mention all interlocutors, and I can only use
pseudonyms, I start with the people who taught me everything I know about
IVF in India. First of all, I am much obliged to the many IVF patients in Delhi
for their openness and cordiality and for allowing me to be present during these
private and often trying moments of their lives. I also thank the doctors and clini­
cal staff who kindly accommodated me in their busy schedules. Special thanks
go to the physician I call Dr. Nishika, who permitted me to observe clinical life
in her private hospital over several months, as well as the junior doctors, nurses,
and staff working there. I am also deeply indebted to the clinicians, nurses, and
staff of one of Delhi’s public IVF centers, who put up with a curious observer and
warmly welcomed me to the team. Furthermore, I am immensely grateful to the
many people in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi who generously shared their experi­
ences and views on the history of IVF in India. Particularly Sunit Mukherjee was
a huge source of support. One of the most humble and kind-hearted persons,
he continued to inspire me since we first met in 2012. Unfortunately, he passed
away in Kolkata on January 4, 2020. He will be missed and remembered. I also
owe thanks to the staff working for various archives who were incredibly sup­
portive in providing material, as well as Arpita Gosh, who helped with Bengali
translations.
This book started at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global
Context” and the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg. The
groundwork was set during research in Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai between
2010 and 2014. During most of my stays in Delhi, I was affiliated with Jawaharlal
Nehru University and accommodated in a student hostel. I greatly profited from
engaging conversations with scholars and students, particularly at the Centre for
the Study of Social Systems and the Centre of Social Medicine and Community
Health. I am grateful to Harish Naraindas, who facilitated my stay, for his critical
mind and for always challenging assumptions. I also thank Burton Cleetus, Tulsi