Description
Book SynopsisWhat is expected of 21st Century egg and sperm donors, and how does being a donor impact on men and women’s own personal lives and relationships? How do donors navigate connections and relationships created by donation? What do these connections mean to them, and to the people around them –their partners, parents, siblings and children?
Donor conception is becoming increasingly widespread and since the new millennium, we have witnessed a dramatic shift in the way that donor conception is regulated and practiced in many jurisdictions around the world. In the past, donor conception has often been a family secret and donors were, almost by definition, anonymous. Now, ‘openness’ is seen as the ideal and donors can expect to be traced or contacted by those born from their donations. But what does this shift mean for donors, and their families?
This path-breaking book draws on in-depth interviews with donors, their kin and fertility counsellors, and addresses these questions by analysing how understandings of donation are shaped by the regulatory, cultural and relational contexts in which they are formed. The authors also discuss what donation stories can tell us about contemporary understandings of connectedness, time and morality in the context of reproduction and family life, and consider how reproductive ‘openness’ might be done differently.
Trade Review. . . a timely and valuable addition to the existing literature on (donor-)ARTs. It offers unique perspectives and weaves together a coherent narrative in which each part builds on each other. The book will undoubtedly resonate with many scholars and students of the sociology of health and illness interested in donation and social relations.
-- Riikka Homanen, Gender Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Donation in UK law and policy: Sociological critique and perspectives
Chapter 2. Pathways to donation
Chapter 3. Making parents and making people: The ambivalent role of ‘good’ donors
Chapter 4. The morality of neutrality: The promise and problems of ‘letting others lead’
Chapter 5. A sense of affinity: The donor-recipient connection
Chapter 6. Whose story is it? Donors, their families and the relational impact of donating
Conclusion. Being an egg or sperm donor in an age of openness
Insights for law and policy. Implications of doing ‘openness’ differently
Appendix 1. Interview study with donors, donors’ relatives and fertility counsellors
Appendix 2. Mapping the law and policy context
