The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series presents: Petra Nordqvist, University of Manchester

Whose story is the story of donating egg and sperm?

On adult autonomy and reproductive connectedness in third party conception

Dr Petra Nordqvist, Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester.

A person’s decision to donate egg or sperm might at first glance appear to be their own autonomous decision. However, colleagues and I recently conducted a large-scale qualitative study, exploring how being a donor shapes donors’ own personal lives, which suggested that it impacts a range of intra- and intergenerational relationships.

Drawing on original data based on interviews with egg and sperm donors, their kin, and fertility counsellors, this presentation explores who might have a stake in egg and sperm donation, and why, offering sociological explanations to emerging patterns. I explore this by looking at who, in their family, donors tell about their donation, when they do so and how they explain decisions about disclosure. I also explore how family members engage with such news, and how people manage potential disagreements in family networks. I show that the two salient but contradictory discourses of adult autonomy, on the one hand, and reproductive connectedness, on the other, jostle for position in the ways in which stories of donating flow in families. The discourses of autonomy and reproductive connectedness are invoked by different people at different times, in different contexts and in different combinations, so that they are emphasised to a greater or lesser degree. I demonstrate that people’s donation disclosure are socially patterned shaped by relational social norms, acting as guides for action, but also that perceptions of how donation puts people in relation (genetics, biology and other forms of connectedness), interlink with norms around disclosure and secrecy in intriguing ways.

The Seminar Series

The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series (Allmänna seminariet) invites international and national researchers to present and discuss on-going research. Each presenter talks for about an hour, followed by about an hour's discussion.

Find more research seminars in this series at soc.lu.se/en/research.

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