Introduction

The contributions to this Symposium issue of RBMS have been prepared following a unique meeting held at Yale University in April 2015 entitled IVF: Global Histories. The articles gathered here present empirical histories of the development of IVF in various countries. These are not intended to be ethnographic, or to develop major new theoretical or conceptual arguments, but rather aim to be indicative case studies situating the development of IVF in specific national contexts with an emphasis on how particular societal influences in the various countries affected the development of the IVF industries there. To date, these histories have never been documented. This Symposium issue aims to begin to rectify this deficit, and to encourage further similar studies of the global development of IVF.