Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CRYOSOCIETIES (Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies)
Période du rapport: 2023-10-01 au 2025-03-31
The research project “Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies” (CRYOSOCIETIES) has examined the social and cultural dimensions of the collection, storage, and use of human and non-human organic material through technologies of deep-freezing, also known as cryotechnologies. CRYOSOCIETIES particularly investigated the implications of cryopreservation for temporalities and the concept of life. The project has utilised a range of qualitative research methodologies to explore distinctive empirical fields and sites of cryobanking across various European countries.
CRYOSOCIETIES consisted of four subprojects. The three empirical subprojects investigated (1) the storage of cord blood to prepare for potential regenerative therapies in the future in Germany, focusing on the speculative value and promissory dimensions of cryopreserved umbilical cord blood; (2) the freezing of oocytes to extend fertility and reshape reproductive futures in Spain, exploring the reasons behind women’s decisions to store their eggs and the role oocyte cryopreservation plays within the studied clinics and the broader reproductive sector; (3) the cryopreservation of endangered or extinct species with the aim of halting extinction by securing a frozen “backup” and “to bring them back to life” using reproductive and genetic technologies, concentrating on two British initiatives, the Frozen Ark charity and the CryoArks biobank. The fourth, theoretical subproject examined the implications of a new form of life that cryopreservation practices create: “suspended life”, which allows for the maintenance of vital processes in a liminal state where biological substances are neither fully alive nor ultimately dead.
CRYOSOCIETIES pursued two central objectives. First, to advance the academic debate on cryopreservation by providing empirical knowledge about how “suspended life” is assembled, mobilised, and negotiated across different fields and materials of cryobanking. Secondly, to foster public engagement with and within the field of cryopreservation and cryobanking. As the significance of the life sciences increases, biological material has become a matter of growing concern, raising issues of privacy, data protection, and potential misuse, as well as the prospects of patenting and commercialisation.
CRYOSOCIETIES consisted of four subprojects. The three empirical subprojects investigated (1) the storage of cord blood to prepare for potential regenerative therapies in the future in Germany, focusing on the speculative value and promissory dimensions of cryopreserved umbilical cord blood; (2) the freezing of oocytes to extend fertility and reshape reproductive futures in Spain, exploring the reasons behind women’s decisions to store their eggs and the role oocyte cryopreservation plays within the studied clinics and the broader reproductive sector; (3) the cryopreservation of endangered or extinct species with the aim of halting extinction by securing a frozen “backup” and “to bring them back to life” using reproductive and genetic technologies, concentrating on two British initiatives, the Frozen Ark charity and the CryoArks biobank. The fourth, theoretical subproject examined the implications of a new form of life that cryopreservation practices create: “suspended life”, which allows for the maintenance of vital processes in a liminal state where biological substances are neither fully alive nor ultimately dead.
CRYOSOCIETIES pursued two central objectives. First, to advance the academic debate on cryopreservation by providing empirical knowledge about how “suspended life” is assembled, mobilised, and negotiated across different fields and materials of cryobanking. Secondly, to foster public engagement with and within the field of cryopreservation and cryobanking. As the significance of the life sciences increases, biological material has become a matter of growing concern, raising issues of privacy, data protection, and potential misuse, as well as the prospects of patenting and commercialisation.
Team members have participated in several conferences to present and discuss (preliminary) findings (as can be seen in the dissemination section of the report). Of particular importance was the organisation of a panel at the EASST/4S 2020 Annual Meeting and a conference on „the politics of suspension“ in Frankfurt in 2022. Both events led to Special Issues, one in the journal Science, Technology and Human Values and the other in BIoSocieties. Several other formats of knowledge dissemination, such as invited talks and presentations in various lecture series, media coverage, and seminars, have also taken place. Additionally, we have fostered transdisciplinary collaboration with medical professionals, cryobiologists and artists working in the field of cryopreservation.
Our multi-sited ethnographic work in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 has enabled us to investigate various fields of cryotechnological development. The interview material and observations in cord blood banking, assisted reproduction technologies, and biodiversity conservation have resulted in numerous publications in important journals. Based on the data and in close collaboration with the conceptual and theoretical work conducted in SP 4, our research output has significantly enhanced the academic debate on the social and cultural dimensions of cryopreservation.
Our multi-sited ethnographic work in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 has enabled us to investigate various fields of cryotechnological development. The interview material and observations in cord blood banking, assisted reproduction technologies, and biodiversity conservation have resulted in numerous publications in important journals. Based on the data and in close collaboration with the conceptual and theoretical work conducted in SP 4, our research output has significantly enhanced the academic debate on the social and cultural dimensions of cryopreservation.
The results of our project encompass a profound empirical analysis of the social and cultural repercussions of cryotechnologies in Europe, which will facilitate a comprehensive and complex understanding of “suspended life.” The rich empirical material collected in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 establishes a convincing conceptual framework for analysing the modalities and implications of cryopreservation in contemporary societies. The findings generated from the empirical cases (SP 1, 2 and 3) engage with and expand upon the concept of biopolitics, as coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, to focus on how cryopreservation practices aim to modulate and control processes of life (SP 4).
In particular, the project demonstrated that the concept of ‘suspended life’ effectively captures the liminality of a biological state between or beyond life and death, without implying a hidden quality of life still present in the frozen organic matter. We also provided evidence to situate cryopreservation practices within current technologies of anticipation and future-making. An analysis of how cryotechnologies are mobilised within anticipatory rationalities shifts the focus from potential in the literature on cryopolitics to a practical interest in addressing future concerns. Finally, we position the analysis of cryopreservation practices within a broader interest in the empirical study of thermal practices, linking the interest in cryopolitics to a more comprehensive concern for ‘critical temperature studies’.
In particular, the project demonstrated that the concept of ‘suspended life’ effectively captures the liminality of a biological state between or beyond life and death, without implying a hidden quality of life still present in the frozen organic matter. We also provided evidence to situate cryopreservation practices within current technologies of anticipation and future-making. An analysis of how cryotechnologies are mobilised within anticipatory rationalities shifts the focus from potential in the literature on cryopolitics to a practical interest in addressing future concerns. Finally, we position the analysis of cryopreservation practices within a broader interest in the empirical study of thermal practices, linking the interest in cryopolitics to a more comprehensive concern for ‘critical temperature studies’.