Egg Donation Imaginaries: Embodiment, Ethics and Future Family Formation

Abstract

This article considers the sociological utility of the ‘imaginary’ for understanding how a growing number of women who seek to conceive using donated eggs might make sense of their future desires, hopes and ambivalences. By combining the imaginary with insights from authors working on ideas about everyday or ‘ordinary’ ethics it considers how deliberations about egg donation take place and how future motherhood is constructed. Three main aspects of what are referred to as ‘egg donation imaginaries’ are defined: ‘imagining donor egg motherhood’; ‘imagining donor motivations’; and ‘imagining the donor’. The article illustrates how the imaginary is a valuable analytical device because it illuminates how ideas, ambivalences, deliberations and reflections about future family building are deeply social, embodied and reflexive. The imaginary advances sociological theorising of reproduction more generally and helps to bridge existing tensions between individual practices and wider social and policy imaginaries.

‘I’m the only mum she knows’: parents’ understanding of, and feelings about, identity-release egg donation

“…This finding is consistent with studies of mothers’ motivations for choosing anonymous egg donors, where mothers expressed a preference for anonymous donation to protect the mother–child relationship ( Laruelle et al , 2011 ; Rubin et al , 2015 ). The coping strategy whereby some mothers distanced themselves from the donor has also been observed in studies investigating mothers’ motivations for choosing anonymous egg donors, in that anonymous donation was chosen to establish and maintain explicit boundaries between the donor and the recipient family, and to limit the donor’s perceived intrusion into family life ( Hershberger et al , 2007 ; Stuart-Smith et al , 2012 ; Hudson, 2020 ). The minimization of the donor’s contribution has also been found to aid the parental claiming and bonding process for mothers of identity-release egg donation infants ( Imrie et al , 2020 ).…”

“…Some prospective parents chose anonymous donation to establish explicit boundaries between the donor and their family, and to avoid any potential legal issues ( Hershberger et al , 2007 ; Laruelle et al , 2011 ). Parents who opted for anonymous donation have reported being motivated by a desire to minimize the role of the donor in their child’s conception story ( Baetens et al , 2000 ; Greenfeld and Klock, 2004 ), to limit the donor’s perceived intrusion into family life ( Hudson, 2020 ), and to protect the mother–child relationship ( Laruelle et al , 2011 ). Some women opted for anonymous donation specifically to avoid the prospect of future donor–child contact ( Greenfeld and Klock, 2004 ; Hershberger et al , 2007 ).…”

“…Conversely, some parents have reported feelings of trepidation when considering the unknown origins of an anonymous donor, instead finding access to detailed donor information reassuring ( Baetens et al , 2000 ; Winter and Daniluk, 2004 ; Laruelle et al , 2011 ). Such information enabled some mothers to feel that they had a bond or relationship with the donor ( Hudson, 2020 ). Rubin et al ’s (2015) study of prospective egg donation parents found that, based on the information provided to them, mothers would look out for signs of a connection with the donor to build a satisfying narrative about her.…”

‘Improving the odds for everybody’: Narrative and media in stem cell donor recruitment patient appeals, and the work to redress racial inequity

“…In donation contexts, we see these insights in action. Organ recipients find creative ways to wend anonymous donors into their own life stories (e.g., Sharp, 2006); donors, recipients and offspring of reproductive material enrol imaginaries of one another (e.g., Hudson [2020] on women’s accounts of their egg donors; Wheatley [2019] on offspring accounts of sperm donors).…”

Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Mesenchymal Stem Cells Recover Fertility of Premature Ovarian Insufficiency Mice and the Effects on their Offspring

“…At the moment, for the women with POI who want to get pregnant, ovum donation (OD) with in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be the only available solution, but there will be no biological lineage between the mother and the child 6 . In addition, some ethical and legal policies for OD in some countries and regions will confine its practice 7 .…”