The Gift of Gametes - Unconscious Motivation, Commodification and Problematics of Genealogy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3945602
AutoresJoan Raphael-Leff (0000-0002-9023-1499), Joan Raphael‐Leff (autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen94
Número1
Páginas117-137
Fecha de publicación2010-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/fr.2009.43
OpenAlexW2049871139
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas19

Three-way baby making is not new: genetic surrogacy existed in Biblical times and donor insemination was recorded in Britain over 200 years ago. However, the gift of gametes between women breaks all social conventions. This paper examines the phenomenon of gamete-donation questioning whether a 'gift' of such magnitude can ever be 'free' (as the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority advocates), or a 'true' gift (in Derridian terms). Exploration of this unprecedented 'gift' from a psychoanalytic approach is supplemented by an interdisciplinary one, drawing on the gift literature in philosophy, anthropology, ethnography and socioeconomics, as well as neonatal research and reproductive medicine. Critics note the dearth of analyses that take seriously the psychological ramifications of contemporary treatments, protocols and expectations in reproductive medicine. Based on psychoanalytic therapy within a clinical practice devoted to reproductive issues, the author argues that institutionalised asexual reproduction alters unconscious conceptualisations of the act of procreation - converting the passionate intimacy of primal scene into a clinical coupling of gametes in a mechanised arena. The author argues that, too charged to contemplate, the gamete's transcendent quality and blurring of elementary personae/ res distinctions leads protagonists, including professionals, to defensive commodification. Multiple emotional meanings are ascribed to gifted gametes by each in the triangle of donor, recipient and offspring, illustrated here with verbatim material. This article addresses some of the far-reaching socio-political consequences for class, race, age, gender and sexuality of asexual reproduction, related to selection procedures and uneven global and local distribution of fertility treatment and its cost in financial, physical, practical and emotional terms. Similarly, feminist unease over (patriarchal) reproductive control and gatekeeping policies are considered, as well as ethical concerns over genetic manipulation, pre-implantation screening, sex selection, selective foetocide and potential exploitation of transnational donors and surrogates

Biology · Commodification · Donation · Egg donation · Embryo donation · Epistemology · Ethnography · Human sexuality · Mores · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Reproduction · Sex selection · Sociology · Unconscious mind · Anthropology · Assisted Reproductive Technology and Twin Pregnancy · Ecology · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies · Reproductive Medicine