This thesis investigates the use of assisted reproduction in Denmark and Sweden. Assisted reproduction is fascinating, because it enables the creation of children who would not have been born otherwise. At the same time, it challenges existing norms concerning sexuality, ethnicity, normality, age, gender and kinship. The processes of creation and change that take place at fertility clinics and sperm banks are analyzed by exploring the encounters between norms, patients, employees, technology and gametes. The analysis shows how legislators, patients and employees relate to and manage the use of these technologies. It illustrates that the predominant principle used for setting ethical limits is the mimicking of nature. However, this principle is constantly negotiated and changed. One reason is that negotiations take place in an encounter with the agency of the technology, gametes and body. Another reason for the change of the naturalization principle is that absurd situations, such as stigmatization and marginalization of patients and their technologically conceived children, take place. The empirical analysis also contributes to a theoretical understanding of how materialization processes (creation processes) take place in the encounters between discourse and material agency. The thesis is written with a point of departure in feminist science studies, and can be read as a contribution to feminist new materialist theory and method.

Nya digitala tekniker gör att tidigare fördolda skeende inom gynekologin alltmer kan visualsieras. Projektets mål var att utforska hur nya teknologier för att visualisera kvinnokroppen påverkar kunskapsproduktion och läroprocessser inom gynekologi med avseende på två aktörer; gynekologen och patienten. De två exempel på visualisering som studerades var ultraljudsundersökning av den gravida livmodern och äggstockar vid behandling av ofrivillig barnlöshet och simulatorn E-pelvis för undervisning av läkarstudenter i gynekologisk undersökningsteknik.