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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alison WheatleyORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
New reproductive technologies have allowed for a disruption of traditional kinship networks through the broadening of who is considered related. In this article, I explore Danish sperm donors' accounts of relatedness and how they situate themselves within the networks that are formed--or have the potential to be formed--through donor insemination. This includes the ways in which they imagine their (potential) offspring and the recipients of their sperm, as well as negotiations with their romantic partners and other family members. The donors drew on narratives of 'the knock on the door' and pop-cultural representations of (donor) fatherhood to understand their position and to frame relationships in particular ways. Donors regularly decoupled the social and the biological in their accounts whilst at the same time placing genetic relationships firmly at the centre of them.
Author(s): Wheatley A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Families, Relationships and Societies
Year: 2019
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Pages: 137-152
Print publication date: 01/03/2019
Online publication date: 20/03/2017
Acceptance date: 04/03/2017
Date deposited: 04/03/2017
ISSN (print): 2046-7435
ISSN (electronic): 2046-7443
Publisher: Policy Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674317X14896713788707
DOI: 10.1332/204674317X14896713788707
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