CryOVAlue · A political economy of ova banking in Spain and Ukraine

With the growing international demand for donor ova, Spain and Ukraine have developed into leading suppliers of donor ova for the burgeoning ova donation industry in Europe. The banking of ova and their transnational shipping is the subject of fierce political and ethical debate among policymakers and medical professionals in Europe. While selling human ova is illegal, countries interpret the relevant legislation differently and find regulatory loopholes, which results in an emergence of market relations around the exchange of ova. This growing transnational ova market makes Europe a key nodal point for understanding the process of valuation of human reproductive materials. However, a comprehensive research project on the economic value of ova under different regulatory regimes is currently lacking. CryOVAlue addresses the field’s knowledge gap by asking how the model of ova banking in Spain and Ukraine influences the valuation of ova produced for market exchange. While most of the literature on ARTs focuses on the cultural understanding of reproductive technologies, their restrictions, and experiences resulting from them, CryOVAlue develops a political economic approach. By conducting comparative analysis of the ova banking in Spain and Ukraine, CryOVAlue explores how the value of ova is affected by the countries political and economic position in Europe, and how it shapes the well-being of ova donors. Moreover, CryOVAlue investigates how the Spanish and Ukrainian ova banking industries are impacted by the war, and how they generate value within rapidly shifting regulatory regimes, markets, and state borders. This project is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, employing participatory observations in the ova banks and interviews with medical professionals, coordinators, couriers, and ova providers, in Spain and Ukraine.