Maria Eugenia Olavarria Patino

Researcher in residence at the Maison Suger | September-December 2023

Maria Eugenia Olavarria Patino is an ethnologist. She holds a PhD in anthropological sciences. She is research and professor in the Anthropology Department at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Campus Iztapalapa (Mexico). She is a member of the National Research System, level 3. She is the author of Surrogate motherhood in Mexico. Parenthood, Technology and Power (Gedisa, 2018). She has published numerous scientific articles devoted to the study of the cultural effects of biotechnologies on human reproduction in the context of social inequalities.

The project

Title: Anthropology of human reproductive biotechnologies and the diversity of kinship in Mexico.

Techniques such as sperm cryopreservation, in vitro fertilization (IVF), the freezing and vitrification of fertilized eggs (embryos), intracystoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and its variants; sperm sexing and pre-implantation DNA analysis are being carried out in the local moral world. What doctors and lab technicians are developing is a social practice that transforms what was once taken for granted and opens the door to previously inconceivable possibilities, certainly surrounded by reactions for or against. The acceleration of scientific and technological progress in recent years, which has led to the realization of previously unthinkable possibilities such as the production of embryos with the genetic information of three people, womb transplants or the production of artificial sperm, is forcing anthropologists to rethink their categories and broaden their field of knowledge and interpretation.

Hosting institution: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale (LAS) - Collège de France