The politics of suspension suspended: the curious case of a cryopreserved cell product

Abstract

Following recent discussions around suspended life, this paper focuses on an endeavor that sought to arrest biological material in time and space and render it available on demand. It depicts the attempt to establish a collection of cryopreserved donated cells. The study offers rare insights into how this initiative was at odds with familiar politics significant in its field, those of innovation and preparedness, and therefore was suspended itself. In identifying parallels with accounts of unsuccessful biobanks, the paper makes a case for the analytical value of considering ill-fated projects of suspension along with those that prosper and attract public attention. The case of a novel cryo-collection, in particular, demonstrates how the idea and practice of suspension only gathers political momentum when it serves other well-established rationales. As such, it prompts two important conclusions. First, the power to arrest life as it comes with cryotechnologies is much more likely to unravel in entrenched constellations than to carry transformative or disruptive potential. Second, however, the paper also exemplifies that projects of suspension are not necessarily doomed to serve hegemonic ways of governing life. It advocates for preventing such mismatches from falling into oblivion.