Kinship and the Value of Intelligible Life

Kinship and the Value of Intelligible Life. A Queer-Feminist Reflection on Sociotechnical Practices of (E)valuation in E-Reproduction

Abstract

This paper analyzes the sociotechnical practices of (e)valuation embedded within two of the latest assisted reproductive technologies (ART). In doing so, we reflect upon the taken-for-granted values of intelligible life and kin-making underpinning what we refer to as e-reproduction. Our analysis employs a queer-feminist perspective that enables us to decenter ways of kin-making and how embryos are evaluated and valued, which have crept unnoticed into the digital reproductive sphere. Focusing on two digital data technologies—an app-based tool for matching donors and recipients in egg cell donation and an AI-based computer vision application for pre-selecting in-vitro fertilized embryos for implantation—we demonstrate that ART are developed not only to offer a technical solution to medical problems but also to social problems that arise in the course of human reproduction, namely: (1) How to make kin, and (2) Which embryos should be granted life in the first place? By reconstructing the tacit values of kin-making and intelligible life underpinning these technologies, we show how ART become performative in reproducing the current heteronormative and mostly ‘white’ ideal of the biologically related, monogamous nuclear and ‘healthy’ family in an ableist society.

In: Krenn, K., Kropf, J., Laser, S., & Ochs, C. (Eds.). (2025). Dynamiken digitaler Bewertung: Über Gestaltungsspielräume in Infrastrukturen – von KI bis Queering. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-46989-4 pp.51-71