Abstract The vexed ‘psychotomimetic model’ of psychedelics claims to offer insights into both psychedelic experiences and psychosis, by weaving across these sets of experiences. One enduring opposition to the model distinguishes between psychedelic experiences as voluntary or ‘willed’, and psychosis as an affliction to be endured. This opposition is useful for projects seeking to sanitise and commodify psychedelics as part of emerging therapeutic interventions. This article draws on literature from psychedelic therapeutics, alongside mad studies, phenomenological psychiatry, and proceedings from a conference at their intersections, to destabilise the opposition between willed psychedelic experiences and unwilled psychosis. Through the paradoxical formulation of psychedelic therapy as willful surrender, I consider the central role accorded to trust, curiosity, openness, and letting go in modes of engaging with extreme experiences, whether pathologised or otherwise. In turn this reveals assumptions of the presumed liberal subject of psychedelic therapy, and brings psychedelic medicalisation into uncomfortable proximity with the very boundary violations it is seeking to avoid.

Of countries where in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been widely implemented, Japan is distinct by the prominence of mild-stimulation IVF (mild IVF), which involves fewer medications and physical stress. It is framed as a ‘patient-friendly’ protocol in medical and public discourses. However, claims concerning friendliness are rarely examined through patients’ embodied experiences. This article employs qualitative methods, including email and virtual interviews with Japanese IVF patients and doctors, to examine two bodily experiences during the IVF egg retrieval stage: cycle repetition and painful encounters, questioning whether mild IVF truly cares for women. The findings reveal a significant inconsistency between patient-friendly medical claims and individual treatment experiences. Although mild IVF provides treatment with less physical burdens, it could also lead to twice as many repeated cycles and unmanaged discomfort, both intensified by the asymmetry of power and information at the medical site. This article contributes to care studies by illustrating the highly nuanced establishment of patient-centred care in IVF treatment. When IVF market across the global promotes ‘tailor-made’ treatment that seemingly posits patients at the centre, this article highlights the awareness of how care is framed and performed.

Research on reproductive citizenship has focused on prospective or intended parents and how they are (or are not) accorded responsibility, entitlement and support in creating a family. With third-party reproductive arrangements, reproductive tissue donors and surrogates have emerged as new reproductive citizens to be governed in public policy, law and medical practices. In this article, drawing on 23 in-depth interviews of Finnish egg donors, we show how the donors take on roles characterised by contradictory moral responsibilities. The donors both downplay and acknowledge the significance of genetic connection to the donor children. By paying attention to selective reproductive technologies used to screen out gamete donors perceived as unfit to donate, we will discuss egg donation as a form of ableist reproductive-biological citizenship where 'good' citizens must know and care not only for their and their offspring’s health but also for the implications of their genome for someone else’s family. However, not all donors align with the ideal type of a good and able reproductive citizen. Some challenge this ideal, crafting reproductive capability and kin relations for third-party reproductive citizens in ways that diverge from the prevailing civic norms.

The collection and freezing of plant seeds in gene banks has been an integral part of global biodiversity policy since the early twentieth century. In recent years, the use of cryopreservation technologies (the storage of biological material at temperatures as low as −196 °C) has been advocated as a complement to these strategies. This technology promises that it will be possible to freeze significantly more plant varieties for longer periods of time. The article draws on scientific publications to analyze the current discourse on cryopreservation technology in the field of agricultural plant conservation. It underpins and intensifies biopolitical trajectories that have been inherent in ex situ conservation from the outset. First, cryotechnology submits to a pure line ontology which frames living beings as having an intrinsic genetic identity, and aims to secure this genetic identity against unplanned changes. Second, cryopreservation is linked to an imaginary of ecological separation that implies the idea that biodiversity can ultimately be preserved without a habitat. The article concludes by pointing to the material limitations and unsolved problems cryotechnologies inevitably face.

The article "Pigs, people and politics: the (re)drawing of Denmark's biological, politico-geographical, and genomic 'borders'", written by Mette N. Svendsen, was originally published Online First without Open Access.

This article (Tsai and Lee 2021) presents a substantial expansion and revision of our previously published Mandarin-language work (Tsai and Lee 2016). While building upon the theoretical foundation laid in that prior study, the current work incorporates new empirical evidence from interviews with Taiwan BioBank (TBB) participants across multiple cities, including Tainan, Chiayi, and Taichung. Furthermore, it engages with an updated and more comprehensive review of the pertinent literature, particularly in relation to the concept of an "imagined future community." We clearly disclosed the connection to the previous Mandarin-language article in the formal cover letter submitted to BioSocieties with our original manuscript and the final revision, but this article did not include an explicit citation. This omission is hereby rectified to include a citation to that prior publication in the published article.

The editors wish to mark the passing of Professor Adele Clarke, a brilliant, generous scholar and colleague, who formed part of our senior editorial team from 2009 to 2014. Adele made a crucial contribution to BioSocieties, through her remarkable breadth of knowledge, her creative intellect and her extraordinary network. She helped steer the journal in its early years and build its foundational thematics and intellectual quality, and we honor her involvement. Of course her contribution to the field of social studies of the biosciences far exceeded her particular contribution to our journal. We thank Professor Monica J. Casper for her obituary, which describes Adele's remarkable life and career.