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Petra Nordqvist

Bio: Petra Nordqvist is an academic researcher from University of Manchester. The author has contributed to research in topics: Donor Conception & Lesbian. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 22 publications receiving 512 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that lesbian couples negotiate parental identities, biogenetic relationships and also the meaning of conception by disassembling and reassembling the meanings of kinship, parenthood, creation, origin and originator.
Abstract: Donor conception challenges conventional kinship idioms: the involvement of a gamete donor culturally raises questions about parentage and also the meaning of genetic heritage. Although there is now a growing body of literature exploring how people resorting to donor conception negotiate kinship and connectedness, this predominantly focuses on heterosexual couples. Little is yet known about how lesbian couples navigate these processes. This paper builds on a qualitative interview study comprising 25 lesbian couples in England and Wales with experiences of pursuing donor conception in the context of their couple relationship to explore how these couples negotiate the contribution of the donor. It explores how couples negotiate meanings of parenthood, genetic origins and the bodily process of conception. The paper argues that lesbian couples negotiate parental identities, biogenetic relationships and also the meaning of conception by disassembling and reassembling the meaning of kinship, parenthood, creation, origin and originator. Findings suggest that lesbian couples weave together old and new understandings of relatedness in complex patterns and that this enables them to assert authority as parents.

88 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the meaning of physical family resemblances in the context of lesbian donor conception and argued that seeking family resemblance can be as much about creating distance as connectedness.
Abstract: Family resemblances and connectedness constitute a recent interest in sociological debate. This article seeks to build on and expand this debate by empirically exploring the meaning of physical family resemblances in the context of lesbian donor conception. This constitutes a neglected area as previous studies primarily explore gamete donation and physical resemblances in the context of heterosexual assisted conception. Considerably less attention has been paid to the specific dynamics inherent to lesbian donor conception. The article draws on a qualitative study comprising 25 lesbian couples in England and Wales with experiences of pursuing both self-arranged and clinical donor conception in the context of a lesbian couple relationship. Building on work in the area of kin, connectedness and family resemblance, this article argues that seeking resemblances can be as much about creating distance as connectedness in the context of lesbian couple donor conception.

85 citations

Book
02 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the relationship between cultural expectations and donor conception in personal life, and the paradoxes of genetic kinship in family life, including relative strangers and the Paradoxes of Genetic Kinship.
Abstract: Introduction 1. Proper Families? Cultural Expectations and Donor Conception 2. Uncharted Territories: Donor Conception in Personal Life 3. Ripples Through the Family 4. Keeping it Close: Sensitivities and Secrecy 5. Opening Up: Negotiating Disclosure 6. Donors: Strangers, Boundaries and Tantalising Knowledge 7. (Not) One of Us: Genes and Belonging in Family Life 8. Relative Strangers and the Paradoxes of Genetic Kinship

72 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored lesbian couples' understandings of becoming and being a family through donor conception, highlighting the complex interplay between privilege and underprivilege in the couples' narratives of conception, and argued that traditional intimate values are emerging as significant in shaping how this community of same-sex couples understand, imagine and construct their intimate lives.
Abstract: This article adds to debates about intimate life in non-heterosexual relationships and the concept of ‘families of choice’ by exploring lesbian couples’ understandings of becoming and being a family through donor conception. Drawing on a study comprising 25 lesbian couples in England and Wales who pursued parenthood together using donor sperm, it explores the constructions of family connections as they emerge in couples’ accounts about donor selection and ethnicity/‘race’, siblinghood, surnames and civil partnerships. Asking how far the concept of ‘families of choice’ accounts for contemporary same-sex intimate practices, the article highlights the complex interplay between privilege and under-privilege in the couples’ narratives of conception. It argues that traditional intimate values are emerging as significant in shaping how this community of same-sex couples understand, imagine and construct their intimate lives.

53 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The meaning of kinship received little sustained attention for some time in British sociology as discussed by the authors, and the issue of bringing kinship into being is a key concern in the process of becoming a parent, and it is argued that kinship is a multilayered and malleable resource with an exceptional capacity to encompass difference.
Abstract: The meaning of kinship received little sustained attention for some time in British sociology. However, we are now beginning to see a shift, and Jennifer Mason’s (2008) conceptualisation of kinship affinities makes an important contribution to emerging debates. In this article I seek to add to such debates and also provide original data from the field of donor conception and lesbian motherhood, a particularly rich field in which to explore the meaning of kin. I investigate stories about becoming parents, and demonstrate that the issue of bringing kinship into being is a key concern in that process. I develop the argument that kinship is a multilayered and malleable resource with an exceptional capacity to encompass difference. This leads me to suggest that we need to be sensitive to the multitude, shifting ways in which connectedness is experienced in personal life.

51 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
John Bain1
TL;DR: When you have completed content of the new family, you can really realize how importance of a book, whatever the book is.
Abstract: Book comes with the new information and lesson every time you read it. By reading the content of this book, even few, you can gain what makes you feel satisfied. Yeah, the presentation of the knowledge by reading it may be so small, but the impact will be so great. You can take it more times to know more about this book. When you have completed content of the new family, you can really realize how importance of a book, whatever the book is

137 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Judith Lorber1
TL;DR: In Sex Cells, Rene Almeling describes in detail the market in what are euphemistically called donated eggs and sperm, and found gender differences not only in pay, but in the framing of the donation as a ‘‘gift’’ or a‘job’, in the market for gametes.
Abstract: In Sex Cells, Rene Almeling describes in detail the market in what are euphemistically called donated eggs and sperm. She found gender differences not only in pay, but in the framing of the donation as a ‘‘gift’’ or a ‘‘job.’’ In the market for gametes, eggs are more highly valued than sperm; egg donation is considered a gift of life, while sperm donors are construed as doing a job for which they are paid. To Almeling, the frame is a gendered stereotype of women as ‘‘selfless, caring, and focused on relationships and family’’ (p. 131); they cannot be seen as selling babies, so their eggs are a ‘‘gift.’’ For sperm donors, the masculine oxymoron was in the juxtaposition of a pleasurable experience (masturbation) with a sometimes alienating job. Yet while sperm donors call themselves fathers and connect to the children born of their sperm, negating the female gestator and social parents, egg donors ‘‘are adamant that they are not mothers’’—the recipients are the mothers (p. 20). Almeling’s extensive, in-depth ethnographic research covers the economic, cultural, and structural organization of six donor programs through interviews with 45 staff members, observations of daily practices, and analysis of more than a thousand records. She also conducted 60to 90-minute interviews with 19 egg donors and 20 sperm donors ranging in age from 19 to 46. Sperm donation went from a medical service for infertile heterosexual married couples in the 1950s using fresh sperm, to a commercial enterprise where frozen sperm is sold increasingly to single women and lesbians. The AIDs epidemic in the 1980s increased the market for sperm that could be frozen and the donors tested for several months before it was used. With new in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques for male infertility, there are fewer heterosexual married couples seeking sperm donation, so the target buyers increasingly are single women and lesbians. The large commercial sperm banks sell donors with profiles and ID releases to meet these clients’ demands. The egg donation programs that began in IVF clinics in the 1980s originally were a search for altruistic ‘‘earth mothers.’’ Psychological evaluations were used on the premise that altruism predicted honesty about medical information and compliance with the regimen of hormonal injections. Anonymity was discouraged; some recipients even recruited their own donors. The proliferation of IVF clinics and new techniques has increased the demand for donated eggs for women whose uteruses are intact but whose eggs are defective. There are many applications to be egg donors, but there is a high attrition rate. The ideal egg donor, according to agency staffs, is either a physically attractive college graduate or a caring mother. The ideal sperm donor is a tall college student with consistently high sperm counts. Agencies also look for ethnic, racial, and religious diversity, and may pay these donors more. The extensive testing that potential egg donors go through and the attrition rate reduce actual donors to 20 percent of the original pool. Sperm banks reject more than 90 percent of applicants, most on the basis of their sperm count. In the course of profiling, the actual sex cells (sperm, eggs) that are being sold turn into gendered people, even though few of the donors’ personality characteristics are inheritable. Egg donation involves self-administered injections of fertility drugs to stimulate egg production and surgical egg retrieval. In addition, the donors are monitored with blood tests and ultrasounds. They may have to travel to the recipient’s city, but sometimes that is a bonus vacation. Side effects can be severe or at the least, discomforting—hyperstimulation, infection, bleeding, anesthetic complications, and pain—but donors prepare themselves with discussions with medical professionals and online or library research. The majority (80 percent) were willing to undergo at least one more cycle; many planned to donate several more times. The donors get paid thousands of dollars no matter how many eggs they produce, but they usually Reviews 379

130 citations