Finding the “Appropriate Distance” in Egg Donor Kinship Relations

Abstract

This article explores kinship formation from the perspective of egg donors in Denmark. Through interviews with Danish egg donors, it investigates how the Danish legal framework and specific context, materialise egg donor kinship relations in third party reproduction. The article shows the ways egg donors negotiate normative ideals about family and motherhood through different kinship strategies. It argues that the donors’ relational kinship work is a form of social pioneering work, wherein donors help define what an egg donor kinship relation is and can be. This is analysed through the analytical concept of “appropriate distance.” The analysis shows how different normative constraints are embedded in the legal framework that structure which kinship relations are available. As an example, the different donor types in Denmark, anonymous, open, and known, become a way of disconnecting or connecting to kinship. In line with existing studies, it demonstrates how egg donation in Denmark is structured around ideals of altruism linked to normative ideals of femininity and motherhood. Further, it is concluded that egg donation proposes subversive potential for deconstructing heteronormative kinship ideals about motherhood. At the same time, however, the analyses conclude that heteronormative family ideals often are re-installed through egg donation practices.

A Sense of Connectedness in Reproductive Donation. Contrasting Policy With Donor and Donor Kin Lived Experience

“…Moreover, such connectedness was fundamentally marked by negotiations of closeness and distance (for a fuller discussion of other research findings, see Nordqvist & Gilman, 2022; see also e.g. Hammond, 2018; Mohr, 2018; Petersen, 2019). The data selected here, in which we show a range of experiences of connection, are brought to the fore however, because the nuanced, complex, networked and ‘messy’ understandings of ‘how donation connects’ evidenced in our study provide important commentary on current policy.…”

“…(Louis, sperm donor, altruistic identity-release and anonymous donation) These accounts suggest that, at least from donors' point a view, a sense of affinity can exist with their recipient(s) (see also e.g. Shaw, 2007;Petersen 2019). It might be surprising to note that to Rachel and Louis (above), the connection with the recipient parent(s) is felt to be the most significant arising from donation.…”

“…The idea that a kinship connection is brought into being through shared bodily substance – be it conceptualised as genetics, biology, blood or, more recently, DNA – is central to Euro-American cultures of relatedness (Carsten, 2004; Edwards and Strathern, 2000). Such understandings emerge from heteronormative ideas and ideals of kinship (Nordqvist, 2015; Petersen, 2019), and hold that bodily material ‘connect people together’. As such, they underscore a range of kinship ideas, including notions of belonging, heritage and inheritance/passing down (Nordqvist, 2017).…”

“…Early studies into egg donation were rare, but tended to focus more on experiences (Konrad, 2005;Shaw, 2007). Since the mid-2000s, research into egg and sperm donors' experiences has expanded with important emerging foci being around potential exploitation, reproductive labour and racialised and economic inequalities (Nahman, 2013;Waldby, 2019); donation and enactments of gender (Almeling, 2011;Mohr, 2018); and also the relational consequences of donation, particularly between the donor and the recipient family (Andreassen, 2019;Gilman, 2020;Hertz & Nelson, 2019;Petersen, 2019). The latter is also the home of our study, which is the first qualitative study to situate donation in the context of donors' own relationships.…”