Although conservative evangelical Protestants advocate for protecting the embryo in their opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, they generally support the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure that routinely results in embryo loss. This study draws on 42 interviews with Protestant women experiencing infertility—the majority of whom are evangelicals who ascribe personhood to embryos—to examine how these women navigate issues of fertility, religion, and reproductive technologies. In their pursuit of parenthood, these women drew on cultural ideals of femininity, such as nurturance and protection, in forming attachments to embryos. These ideals of femininity were also invoked in the women's moral reasoning surrounding embryo loss, where women emphasized their procreative intention as the creation, not the destruction, of embryos. In doing so, the women described themselves as embracing motherhood. Embryo loss was often understood as a means to create the family formations that God intended. I develop the concept of gendered moralities to show how evangelical women mobilize and enact culturally valued forms of femininity in their reasoning about embryo loss. These findings shed light on larger debates about when and why embryo loss becomes a moral issue. I argue that because embryo loss in the fertility clinic occurs in a space where women are striving to become mothers, the clinic and its largely white, middle-class clientele are shielded from moral condemnation that occurs in other settings. This suggests that the fertility clinic, along with its patients and practitioners, occupies a privileged space within the moral hierarchies of reproduction.

尽管保守的福音派新教徒主张保护胚胎以反对堕胎和胚胎干细胞研究，但他们通常支持使用体外受精 (IVF)，这种程序通常会导致胚胎丢失。这项研究利用了对 42 位经历不孕症的新教女性的采访——其中大多数是将人格归因于胚胎的福音派——来研究这些女性如何应对生育、宗教和生殖技术等问题。在追求为人父母的过程中，这些女性借鉴了女性气质的文化理想，例如养育和保护，形成对胚胎的依恋。这些女性气质的理想也在女性围绕胚胎丧失的道德推理中被引用，女性强调她们的生育意图是创造，而不是破坏，胚胎。在这样做的过程中，这些女性将自己描述为拥抱母性。胚胎丢失通常被理解为创造上帝所期望的家庭结构的一种手段。我发展的概念性别道德，以展示福音派女性如何在他们对胚胎丢失的推理中动员和制定具有文化价值的女性气质形式。这些发现揭示了关于胚胎丢失何时以及为何成为道德问题的更大争论。我认为，由于生育诊所的胚胎丢失发生在女性努力成为母亲的地方，诊所及其主要是白人的中产阶级客户免受其他环境中发生的道德谴责。这表明生育诊所及其患者和从业者在生殖的道德等级中占据了特权空间。