Kin or Research Material? Exploring IVF Couples’ Perceptions about the Human Embryo and Implications for Disposition Decisions in Norway

In vitro fertilization (IVF) involves making embryos outside of the human body, which has spurred debate about the status of the embryo, embryo research and donation. We explore couples’ perceptions about embryos and their thoughts and acceptability about various disposition decisions in Norway. Based on an ethnographic study including interviews and observations in an IVF clinic, we show that couples do not perceive their pre-implantation IVF embryos to be human lives; rather, they consider successful implantation the start of life. We suggest that this response indicates a change in the perception of the human embryo or the fertilised egg from incipient life—a viewpoint that was dominant in the discussions of embryo research in the 1980s and 1990s. We also show how this view of the pre-implantation embryo elucidates why donating embryos to research appears acceptable but donating to other infertile couples seems rather difficult. Before transfer to a woman’s uterus, the embryo exists in a liminality; it is not yet human life but a living cell with potential for both research and pregnancy. When an embryo is implanted and pregnancy is confirmed, human life activates; the embryo becomes potential kin, influencing couples’ struggles with donating embryos to other couples.