Relocating Reproductive Justice in Donor Sperm and Egg Capitalism

Abstract

Privileged (in various forms, but especially class) people use egg or sperm donation and take other reproductive measures to achieve parenthood at all costs. Infertility issues for heterosexual partners and those who use donor eggs and sperm outside of heteronormative relationships has evolved into a type of entitled desperation and racial/ethnic/able-bodied form of eugenics, both further complicated by the cultural milieu of the post- Dobbs decision era. To illustrate how these rhetorics of infertility operate within broader neoliberal and racialized discourses, we critically consider three themes: first, we contend that fertility issues should become theorized through reproductive justice theory, particularly as class/race/nation divides donors from recipients, through forms of capitalistic endeavor as a rational enterprise; second, we review how “infertility” has become rhetorically important in the U.S. cultural milieu in critical communication and cultural studies; and finally, we argue that donor rhetorics represent a form of neoliberalism situated within racial/ethnic able-bodied eugenics and an inability to conceive, which results in emotional, physical, and financial cost to the self and society.