Mitochondrial Donation and UK Biomedical Politics

In 2015 the UK became the first country in the world to legalise mitochondrial donation, a controversial assisted reproductive technology. Across this book, we detail how institutions, activist groups, scientists, parliamentarians, patients and publics engaged in extensive labour to support, justify and legitimise their position within hard fought campaigns. We also consider how the technology was given meaning through policy consultations, reviews and debates. By drawing on a unique dataset of interviews with stakeholders, we argue that the legalisation of mitochondrial donation is the latest iteration of a particular UK sociotechnical imaginary in which embryo research and use is rendered ethical through a permissive but highly scrutinised system. In this first chapter we set out a timeline of the debates, key points of contestation, and our methodological and theoretical contribution.