Miracles of love

The use of metaphor in egg donor ads1

Bibliographic Data

ID3667237
AuthorsPamela Hobbs (0000-0003-0797-9533, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume11
Issue1
Pages24-52
Publication date2007-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociolinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-6441 • E-ISSN: 1467-9841
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00309.x
OpenAlexW2062508894
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited23

In recent years, the appearance of egg donor advertisements in American college newspapers, sometimes offering five- and six-figure fees to 'genetically gifted' donors, has given rise to critical comment on both sides of the Atlantic, and has caused some to fear that the use of these procedures will eventually result in the creation of 'designer babies' with preselected genetic qualities. Whether such fears will be realized depends, to a great extent, upon how both the participants themselves and society as a whole come to view and understand these procedures. This article explores emerging images of assisted reproduction through an analysis of the use of metaphor in egg donor ads that appeared in the student newspaper of the University of California, Los Angeles. I argue that the attitudes displayed in these ads result from a mapping of existing cultural stereotypes associated with biological parenthood, including the role of childbearing in marriage and 'coupledom', onto the assisted-reproduction process, and that these metaphors are used precisely because they construct this cultural model and adapt it to the new reality of the assisted-conception experience

Biology · Construct (python library · Cultural reproduction · Egg donation · Linguistics · Media studies · Metaphor · Newspaper · Reproduction · Sociology · Child Welfare and Adoption · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies · Science Education and Perceptions · Social Psychology · Ecology · Genetics

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