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Reproducing the Border: Kinship Legalities in the Bioeconomy

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Bioeconomies

Abstract

Biomedical technologies, such as genetic testing and assisted reproduction, challenge the constitution of families. They influence how kin members relate to each other but also how the nation-state defines which families are legitimate and illegitimate, worthy and unworthy. The bioeconomy can be seen as encompassing the development and promotion of these technologies and has significant implications for the kin relationships formed or disturbed by them. Van Wichelen’s chapter focuses on these implications and looks at the question of kinship legality in the bioeconomy. It compares different practices pertaining to family life—namely cross-border surrogacy and family reunion in immigration —that are not typically seen in conjunction, but that taken together, can illuminate how bioeconomies are implicated in the global regulation of families and reproduction.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council for Early Career Researchers (DECRA, project number DE140100348). I am very grateful to the editors Vincenzo Pavone and Joanna Goven for inviting me to contribute to this volume and for their extensive and thoughtful comments that have made it a much better piece. Much of the ideas for this paper came out of a workshop Reproductive Biopolitics organized by Catherine Waldby at the University of Sydney in December 2014. I would like to thank her and the other participants for a productive discussion to an earlier version of this chapter. I would also like to thank Marc de Leeuw for helping me develop the argument presented here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Policy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Sonja van Wichelen

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  1. Sonja van Wichelen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Vincenzo Pavone

  2. Kukupa Research Ltd, Pigeon Bay, Germany

    Joanna Goven

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van Wichelen, S. (2017). Reproducing the Border: Kinship Legalities in the Bioeconomy. In: Pavone, V., Goven, J. (eds) Bioeconomies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55651-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55651-2_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55650-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55651-2

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