Relatedness in Assisted Reproduction
Families, Origins and Identities

This multidisciplinary book addresses the nature and meaning of relationships and identity in assisted conception families.

Tabitha Freeman (Edited by), Susanna Graham (Edited by), Fatemeh Ebtehaj (Edited by), Martin Richards (Edited by)

9781316618028, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 September 2016

332 pages, 1 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

'A well-edited, comprehensive and very readable volume, this is essential reading for anyone interested in issues of identity, relatedness and kinship in donor-assisted reproduction.' Hugh Whittall, Director, Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Assisted reproduction challenges and reinforces traditional understandings of family, kinship and identity. Sperm, egg and embryo donation and surrogacy raise questions about relatedness for parents, children and others involved in creating and raising a child. How socially, morally or psychologically significant is a genetic link between a donor-conceived child and their donor? What should children born through assisted reproduction be told about their origins? Does it matter if a parent is genetically unrelated to their child? How do experiences differ for men and women using collaborative reproduction in heterosexual or same-sex couples, single parent families or co-parenting arrangements? What impact does the wider cultural, socio-legal and regulatory context have? In this multidisciplinary book, an international team of academics and clinicians bring together new empirical research and social science, legal and bioethical perspectives to explore the key issue of relatedness in assisted reproduction.

Introduction Tabitha Freeman
Part I. Conceptualising Relatedness: 1. A British history of collaborative reproduction and the rise of the genetic connection Martin Richards
2. Undoing kinship Jeanette Edwards
3. Genetically challenged: the determination of legal parenthood in assisted reproduction Julie McCandless and Sally Sheldon
4. On the moral importance of genetic ties in families John B. Appleby and Anja Karnein
5. Who cares where you come from? Cultivating virtues of indifference Hallvard Lillehammer
6. Legal kinship and connection in US donor families Naomi Cahn
7. Relatedness in clinical practice Andrea Mechanick Braverman and Lucy Frith
Part II. Experiencing Relatedness: 8. Defining connections: gender and perceptions of relatedness in egg and sperm donation Rene Almeling
9. The significance of relatedness for surrogates and their families Vasanti Jadva and Susan Imrie
10. Frozen symbols of relatedness: Belgian patients and their decisions about unused cryopreserved embryos Veerle Provoost and Guido Pennings
11. Family relationships in gay father families with young children in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom Marcin Smietana, Sarah Jennings, Cathy Herbrand and Susan Golombok
12. Stories of an absent 'father': single women negotiating relatedness through donor profiles Susanna Graham
13. Infertility, gamete donation and relatedness in British South Asian communities Nicky Hudson and Lorraine Culley
14. Families created by assisted reproduction: children's perspectives Lucy Blake, Sophie Zadeh, Helen Statham and Tabitha Freeman
15. Making connections: contact between sperm donor relations Tabitha Freeman, Kate Bourne, Vasanti Jadva and Venessa Smith
16. Relational lives, relational selves: assisted reproduction and the impact on grandparents Petra Nordqvist and Carol Smart.

Subject Areas: Bio-ethics [PSAD], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Psychology [JM]