The dissertation examines the development of assisted reproduction in American medicine and culture between the first reported use of artificial insemination in the late eighteenth century and the birth of the modern cryobanking industry at the end of the twentieth century. It focuses on artificial insemination, the first “assisted reproductive” technology, in a wide range of historical contexts—eighteenth century gynecological practices, nineteenth century clinics, early twentieth century eugenics movements, post World War II veterans hospitals, and the first fertility clinics to offer cryopreservation services in the late twentieth century. Tracing the evolution of technology in such varied medical and social arenas reveals that its research and practice expanded in moments of moral, sexual, and family panic – in the wake of wars, demographic upheaval, and national uncertainty. It also establishes that concerns about marriage, hereditary health, patient privacy, and the connection between social and biological relatedness were concerns for actors across eras as they intervened in reproductive sex as was the perception that medical science offered new technological solutions to infertility. Finally, in contrast to contemporary scholarly arguments that privilege in vitro fertilization and the birth control pill the project shows that by transferring intimate acts of conception into physician’s offices artificial insemination made critical contributions to the medicalization and consumerization of reproduction. Using the history of artificial insemination as a lens this project speaks to scholarship on reproduction by offering an analysis of how gender, race, and sexuality influenced the growth of a medical market in fertility and the ability to regulate it. Following the gendered politics of science and reproduction as they manifest in this unique, albeit low-tech, technology this dissertation contributes to the history of reproductive science by tracing the developing contours of the scientific study of sperm. Doing so not only enables the insertion of men’s reproductive bodies into the history of reproduction and its technologies but also provides a window into the collaborations between industrial chemistry, experimental biology, and reproductive medicine as they sought to safely freeze, store, and thaw human and animal sperm. Finally, the dissertation provides critical insights into the changing understandings and technological transformations of modern families. Analyzing controversies over AI in popular, bio-medical, and political spheres demonstrates that the control of conception was an important locus by which authorities and individuals understood what made a family, while also revealing the remarkable fluidity of the concept of “family” throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
History
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_4703
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
x, 447 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Bridget E. Gurtler
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Human reproductive technology--United States--History--19th century
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Human reproductive technology--United States--History--20th century
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Artificial insemination, Human--United States--History--19th century
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Artificial insemination, Human--United States--History--20th century
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.