Uncertainties, Risks or Hope? Managing Embryos in a Multidisciplinary Team of PGT
While existing qualitative research on PGT's clinical decision-making process primarily focuses on patients and their families, less attention has been paid to the perspectives of the medical specialists, particularly in the context of mainland China.
Drawing on ethnographic observations conducted between 2021 and 2024 at an assisted reproductive clinic in Shanghai, China, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 PGT providers (genetic counselors, geneticists, IVF doctors, nurses, etc.) and users, we explore how this multidisciplinary team of PGT negotiates the selection of PGT embryos for transfer in medical contexts. Especially, how providers from various backgrounds perceive and frame these PGT embryos as clinical uncertainties or even risks, often in contrast to the promise of this technology.
Through close interactions with the multidisciplinary team of PGT, we offer a deep understanding of the production and interpretation of PGT embryos’ uncertainty. On the landscape of uncertainty, PGT providers with distinct professional standpoints and decision-making resources often hold varying perspectives on PGT embryos and offer different recommendations, contributing to dilemmas faced by PGT users. The divergence in decision-making among PGT providers serves as a lens to explore how China's family planning policy originated in the 1980s continue to influence the practice of reproductive experts in the genomics era.