Sorting cells out: an inquiry into the circulation and valuation of cord blood units

Novel entities like stem-cells and related medical therapies not only encapsulate huge hopes for medical treatments, they have also become key sites of capital accumulation. The valuation of life science objects has been treated in several ways in recent years. In STS, a first strand addresses the value of tissues and body parts mainly in terms of commodification. By contrast, a second strand emphasizes the importance of assetization as the key driver in technoscientific capitalism. Finally, anthropological contributions interested in valuation often question the boundary between commodity and gift. In this paper, we take stock of these contributions by empirically studying the donation of cord blood units (CBUs) and following their multiple paths (i.e. release for storage, direct use, trash) as co-modified with infrastructures that translate and valorize them. We develop a framework to address the set of practices and operations that constitute and configure multiple, potentially conflicting, forms of ‘value’ (i.e. economic, political, therapeutic, scientific). Relying on prolonged ethnographic research conducted in a cell therapy laboratory of a university hospital in Belgium, we find that the performance of sorting cells out is a crucial tool of valuation, as it dramatically affects the circulation, value and status of cells. By providing compelling evidence that moving cells to the market thrives on the interplay between strategies of turning living entities into gifts, commodities or assets, we aim to reinvigorate scholarly discussions by showing how complex valuation processes can significantly mark the social life of the same cells.