| Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), defined as technologies that bring together human gametes for the purposes of reproduction and regenerative research, have enabled new life for those expanding their families, as well as those looking to treat degenerative diseases. As meanings of life have shifted in an era of evolving reproductive technology, the state has new opportunities to intervene, mediate, and prohibit the use of ARTs in the United States. In light of the moral and instrumental ways to understand ARTs and the social implications of ART practices, what is the role of the state in ART oversight? Moreover, how does issue framing of ARTs impact legislative outcomes? Using egg donation as a particular site of morals and markets, I investigate these question through the legislative activity on egg donation at the state level, as well as the public policy making processes about egg donation. Given the empirical and theoretical gaps in ART scholarship about state-level legislation in the US in the contemporary period, this dissertation aims is to answers these research questions through original data on various kinds of ART legislation between 1990 and 2010, at the state level. Employing hazard analysis of egg donation legislation between 1998 and 2008 in 49 states, this project advances the argument that state-level legislative activities on egg donation are vibrant, and increased by scientific stakeholders in ARTs, as well as the presence of women in politics and economic life. Looking closer at cases of egg donation legislation in case studies of California, New York, Arizona, and Louisiana, I find that legislators frame egg donation as moral and instrumental social issues---with varying degrees of legislative success. I argue that state-level oversight has problematic implications for the concept of stratified reproduction and suggest applying the equal liberty principle to ART policymaking. Finally, I argue that the absence of political debate---particularly the absence of feminist voices---warrants new political solutions to increase democratic discourse on ART issues. |
