Neoliberal Way of Conception: Everyday Geopolitics of Love, Intimacy and Reproduction in South Korea

Keywords: Infertility, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Reproduction, South Korea, Neoliberalism, low fertility rate
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 21

Abstract

As the birth rate rapidly declines in South Korea, the government has offered incentives to reverse this trend. Support for subfertile(infertile) heterosexual married couples is one of them. The Korean government generously expanded financial support for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). As a result, the cost for ARTs has decreased. Now, it is affordable to more people across the economic classes. In this environment, many women who plan for pregnancy choose ART treatments as an effective way of conception. They try conception in the quasi-public place of fertility clinics, instead of the private place of home.
In this paper, I explore the everyday life of subfertile women who juggle giving birth with the help of medical treatments along with their having work commitments. First, I shed light on how women’s menstrual biorhythm becomes visible and how it changes her daily routine. Second, I focus on how the practice of procreation changes from the intimate relationship between a man and woman to the union of a woman's body and sperm in a scientifically organized way. By doing so, I discuss the changing reproductive behaviors of people who must compromise between social timing and biological timing in a neoliberal era. I argue that fertility clinics mediate between busy couples in order to conceive by freezing reproductive cells (eggs and sperm) and embryos.