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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how the rise of cheap and accessible Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing (DTCGT) affects people impacted by donor conception. It looks specifically at how such people navigate relating after a positive match, showing how a fine-tuned 'ethics of relating' mark interactions.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores how the rise of cheap and accessible Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing (DTCGT) affects families impacted by donor conception. At the heart of our interest is the relational impact of the social management of genetic ties because whereas DTCGT operates in the service of laying bare hidden genetic connectedness, donor conception is predominantly organised to hide said connections, raising pressing questions about how people at the intersection of the two respond to a DNA match. This second paper, in an analysis in two parts (for part one see Nordqvist et al 2025), takes as a starting point our previous claim that a genetic match discovered using DTCGT can be understood to bring about an ‘accelerated kinship’, that differs in style and texture to relationships known as kinship; the type Edwards (2000) call ‘born and bred’ kinship. We explore the nature of relating and how relating unfolds in the context of such ‘accelerated kinship’ from making introductions to seeking to establish a more ongoing relationship. We show that relating in this context is marked by an ‘ethics of relating’, shaped by extreme tentativeness, responsiveness and care.