Psychosocial
Implications of
Donor Insemination
RONA ACHILLES AND KEN DANIELS
Similar to other reproductive technologies that separate sexual intercourse from reproduction, donor insemination (DI) can alter the usual parameters of time and space in reproductive behavior. Reproductive partners need no longer be in the same location at the same time. Indeed, they no longer need to meet or know each other in any way. Freezing of sperm allows for different time frames including the possibility that a man's sperm may be used to conceive a child after his death. In addition, sperm may be manipulated before insemination, as it is in sex predetermination techniques. As well, the medicalization of conception that occurs with DI moves conception from the private to the public realm and grants the medical profession control over who becomes a parent. This process also has eugenic consequences in the screening of both donors and recipients.
With artificial insemination by husband (AIH), the psychosocial implications are minimal, since aside from the stress associated with all infertility treatments, the practice of AIH replicates reproduction by two partners through sexual intercourse. In DI, the traditional interpersonal dynamics of reproduction are substantially altered. DI mothers conceive
-160-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Encyclopedia of Reproductive Technologies.
Contributors: Annette Burfoot - Editor.
Publisher: Westview Press.
Place of publication: Boulder, CO.
Publication year: 1999.
Page number: 160.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
One moment ...
- Georgia
- Arial
- Times New Roman
- Verdana
- Courier/monospaced
Reset