Capitalization, Optimization, and Choice

Recently proposed alterations to the United States Patent Act would unsettle the US Supreme Court’s 2013 invalidation of isolated gene patents. Simultaneously, biotechnological advances have led to the increasing availability of pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT), which enables the (de-)selection of embryos following in vitro fertilization and prior to implantation. This paper uses the patent debates as an opening through which to examine the nexus of patent law, technoscientific capitalism, and reproductive genetic technologies—specifically, a form of pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT-M) that identifies specific genetic sequences that contribute to disease. Using feminist science studies and reproductive justice frameworks, I argue that the gendered imaginary of “high-risk” investment and health risk management, coupled with the privatization of biomaterial disproportionately produced by women, may exacerbate racial and economic inequities in access to reproductive healthcare.