Abstract

This essay is based on field-research carried out in Italy between September 2001 and December 2002 in an infertility clinic. This research focuses on the ongoing changes within the field of assisted reproduction and it explores the conceptualization of the reproductive body in its relationships to body, sex, and gender. The analysis of the experiences and implications of assisted reproduction highlights a context where the notion of nature has lost its meaning, due to the overlap of diverse and intersecting fields: biological, artificial, technological. The issue analyzed is the "natural" body as an object produced by forms of knowledge shaped by scientific discourse and representation. The essay focuses on the changes in the way the body is thought of in its material form and on the birth of new reproductive "objects" (gametes, embryos, reproductive organs).