Gendering gametes: The unequal contributions of sperm and egg donors

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) 2015-12, Vol.147, p.10-19
• Main Authors: Hertz, Rosanna, Nelson, Margaret K., Kramer, Wendy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Children; Egg donors; Embryos; Female; Females; Gender; Gestational mothers; Heredity; Humans; Insemination, Artificial - methods; Internet; Male; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; New reproduction technologies; Ovum; Parents & parenting; Pregnancy; Reproductive technologies; Socioeconomic Factors; Sperm donations; Sperm donors; Spermatozoa; Tissue Donors; United States
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.10.049

This paper compares three groups of gestational mothers who relied on gametes from donors they did not know. The three groups are women who have conceived with donor sperm and their own eggs, women who have conceived with donor eggs and a partner's sperm, and women who have conceived with embryos composed of both donor eggs and donor sperm. The paper explores three issues. First, it considers whether intending parents select sperm and egg donors for different attributes both when they are chosen as the only donor and when they are chosen as donors contributing to an entire embryo. Second, it examines how women imagine the donor. Finally, it looks at how women conceptualize the donor as an individual who contributes to their child's characteristics. Two significant findings emerged in this analysis of survey data. First, the data show that gametes are gendered with different attributes both when those gametes are separate and even more so when seen as complementary parts of a whole. Second, the data show that women minimize the impact of the egg donor (both when a sole contribution and especially when part of the complementary whole) and thus ignore the influence or impact of the egg donor relative to how they make sense of the influence or impact of the sperm donor. The data for this study comes from an online survey developed by the authors. •Women chose egg donors and sperm donors for different qualities.•Women imagine sperm donors and egg donors differently.•Sperm donors are viewed more often than egg donors as the origin of a child's talents.•Gametes are gendered and sperm is given a privileged status.