Racial Mixing and Matching: Gamete Donation, Family Formation, and Reproductive Choice

• In Event: Technology and/in Racial Formations

Abstract

While assisted reproductive technologies and the use of donor gametes are contributing to the normalization of new family configurations that extend beyond biological relatedness, advances in genetic technologies have produced an increasing emphasis on genetic knowledge and biocitizenship. The contemporary popularity of genealogy testing underscores a propensity for the public to seek answers about shared origin and family narratives, in search of some sort of racial truth discoverable only within genes. Thus, at the same time that new family formations are challenging the use of biology as the sole measure for understanding kinship, popular applications of genetic knowledge are imbuing genes with more meaning and racial significance—knowledge that is in turn applied to decisions about family formation. Despite the increasing commonality of non-biological kinship, gamete donor selection is still predominated by an interest in family resemblance and the assumption of racial matching. For mixed race intended parents and interracial couples, however, such practices of racial matching may not be possible or readily accessible. This paper will use gamete donation as a site to investigate how ideas about race, culture, genetics, and connection to family background inform the donor selection process for mixed race parents and interracial couples. By investigating decisions about prospective gamete donors for those who may not be able to employ the racial matching logic, this paper will explore the continued salience of race and reproduction of racial meaning that occur in family formation in the context of assisted reproductive and genetic technologies.

Author

• Alyssa Marie Newman, Harvey Mudd College