Urgent Paternity, Unconcerning Maternity? Making Sense of Gamete Donation

• In Event: 4163 - Social Dimensions of Reproductive Technologies

Abstract

In this chapter, I examine early discussions about gamete donation within the social world of reproductive medicine. Conceptually, egg and sperm donation are equivalent practices. Donors provide gametes to others (recipients) who need reproductive assistance. The donors do not intend to assume a parental role in relation to the donor-conceived child. Both procedures are conducted on the body of the recipient woman, who is also the intended mother. She either undergoes artificial insemination (AI) using the donor sperm, or embryo transfer after in-vitro fertilization (IVF) of the donor egg and selected sperm (partner or donor). Despite conceptual and technical similarities, scholars have emphasized the gendered constructions of gamete donation.
I take a broad historical look at differential reactions to gamete donation from key actors and organizations within reproductive medicine (physicians and professional bodies) as well as external actors who in different ways intersected with this social world, e.g., through publishing commentaries in medical journals, or acting as non-medical advisory experts. I pay particular attention to what discussions of these practices conveyed about cultural understandings of paternity and maternity. What did it mean for the traditional (hetero-patriarchal) institutions of marriage and family to substitute donor sperm or donor eggs in reproduction? I first turn to the emergence of AI and IVF—the corresponding techniques for sperm and egg donation--and the ensuing cultural backlash. I then examine how different actors drew comparisons with existing social practices as models to interpret gamete donation as normative or deviant (or both). Finally I discuss how practitioners sought to exert social control over both procedures. I conclude by arguing that sperm donation was considered substantially more threatening than egg donation to the traditional family, as evidenced by the content of the backlash, comparative social practices, and degree and type of social control over AID compared to egg donation. Also implicit in these discussions was that the genetic maternal line was seemingly less crucial to family construction—something I will decidedly trouble in the next chapter.

Author

• Katherine M. Johnson, Tulane University