Gametes, law and modern preoccupations

This article surveys a range of recent media stories about human gametes, p inning them to a series of wider preoccupations within late modern life. Th ree preoccupations are singled out: first, kinship and relational identity; secondly, Nature and globalisation; and finally, sexual difference and equ ality. Each one of these preoccupations has been characterised as iconic; d ebates about them are said to crystallise who we are, especially our uncert ainties, and what we will be in the future. By indexing these preoccupation s to the stories about human gametes, the article aims to upset both the in creasing attempts to present assisted reproduction technologies as 'familia r' (as Nature's 'helping hand', for example) and the recurring assumptions about this technology's alleged 'novelty' and 'anomaly'. The article conclu des that treating reproduction technologies, and their regulation, as 'fami liar' risks complacency: equally, assumptions about their 'novelty' narrows the search for effective explanatory tools and regulatory mechanisms. The upshot is that it might be best for us to view reproductive technologies as both less 'familiar' and less 'novel'.