Same-sex parenting, assisted reproduction and gender asymmetry: reflecting on the differential effects of legislation on gay and lesbian family formation in Spain

Abstract

This article takes an anthropological approach to examine how laws governing family formation in Spain affect same-sex couples seeking to become parents, in particular the cultural causes and implications of such laws. It highlights how the same laws are has a different impact on gay couples and lesbian couples. Legislation combines with other factors to favour and expand the possibilities of accessing motherhood for women in lesbian couples while limiting the possibilities of parenthood for men in gay couples. Moreover, the persistence of certain cultural models of fatherhood and motherhood can be observed, which further constrain parenthood access options and the forming of new family models.

Making and breaking families – reading queer reproductions, stratified reproduction and reproductive justice together

“…in Russia, India, Portugal). In many of the countries that legalized gay marriage or partnership, motherhood for women in lesbian couples may be more supported legally and socially than fatherhood in gay couples (Imaz, 2017). In some countries such as China or Singapore, LGBTQ+ family rights are not recognized and yet some gay men seek to have and raise genetically related offspring conceived through surrogacy abroad (Wang and Shan, 2017).…”

Methods and Success Factors of Induced Lactation: A Scoping Review

“…Indeed, there is currently a tendency in the West to regard breastfeeding as a symbol of maternal identity. The "good" mother is one who breastfeeds her child, as by doing so she is seeking the best, both for her child and with regard to her own self-realization as a mother (Lommen et al, 2015).The new family structures with the same sex couples and the rise of assisted reproduction has resulted in an increase of induced lactation in both these situations; the maternity in same sex couples and in surrogacy (Imaz, 2017). Induction of lactation will gain importance and more studies about this process will be necessary.…”

Human Rights and Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): A Contractarian Approach

“…Consider, for instance, the practice of "shared motherhood", also known as ROPA (Reception of Oocyctes from Partner), "partner assisted reproduction", "reciprocal IVF", or "inter-spousal egg donation" (43). This procedure enables clinicians to use IVF to fertilize the egg cell of one woman with the semen of a donor and then transfer the fertilized egg cell into the womb of another woman, her partner.…”

“…Recent developments in ART now cast doubt on the assumption that same-sex couples are unavoidably non-reproductive. In a recent discussion on the institutionalization of shared motherhood in Spain, Elixabete Imaz argued that ART made women in same-sex relationships aware of their own reproductive capacities as a couple: "Most lesbian women assumed that their relationships were not reproductive and, consequently, their plans did not include motherhood" (43). Because same-sex female couples assumed (quite reasonably at the time) that they were non-reproductive as a couple, they could not have reasonably brought forth their basic desire to found a family and have children in the dialogic process that preceded the establishment the human rights listed in the UDHR, in the ECHR, or in the ICCPR.…”