Paper short abstract:

Assisted conception using donated semen developed initially within an ideology of secrecy and anonymity. The legal provision or obligation now for non-anonymity, in an increasing number of countries, highlights ambivalence about the kinship role of donors.

Paper long abstract:

Donor assisted conception using donated semen was developed in the UK as a means to circumvent male infertility so as to enable married women to become mothers. Anonymity was insisted upon or colluded with, by infertility clinics in order to protect the institution of marriage. However an opposing view noted that anonymity deceived the children conceived with donor semen, and might cause obstacles in tracking genetically inherited conditions.

Research in the UK amongst infertility specialists, and interviews with doctors who had donated anonymously when they were medical students, has revealed an ambivalent and complex understanding of kinship, and of the relationship between the social and the biological framing of fatherhood. A significant finding was that genetic connection was seen as likely to mean physical and other resemblances between donor and offspring, suggesting that tracking the genes plays a part in assigning kinship roles.