Oöcytes for research: inspecting the commercialization continuum

Using human oöcytes for research purposes is a controversial subject, but although much has been written on the ethical issues of the practice, there is comparatively little empirical knowledge of the practice itself. This article analyzes the scope, infrastructure, and dynamics of oöcyte procurement for research in Europe and California and identifies some major trends and shifts in the field. Our research shows that oöcyte procurement strategies have evolved out of close institutional integration with the IVF sector, that there has been a shift from “poor quality” oöcytes to “good quality” oöcytes – which implies a shift to ethically more problematic procurement practices – and that we see a variety of crypto-commercial strategies, which enable monetary transactions while avoiding confrontation with non-commercialization policies. Finally, there has been a move to more commercial models of procurement, which can be interpreted as a strategy to release the infrastructural requirements that tie researchers to the IVF sector.