Good questions as always, Amy. Is the broad range of perspectives on the meaning of egg donors+egg donation a reflection on the deeper meaning of motherhood in general and is there a different set of complexities involved in de than there is in ds? Is it simply less black+white for de than ds?
Please see Amy's comment to this post. Thanks Amy,
Sara, I'd have to defer to my mental health colleagues and to those who, like you, advocate for families built via donor conception to address how practices at gamete banks reflect and/or impact a broader perspective of motherhood, perhaps even an ethicist might have some insightful observations to share. What I can comment on is what I see in my daily practice and where I see room for improvement. Generally speaking, my concerns go more to the in-house donor practices at clinics as well as at banks (sperm, embryo and now egg banks). With all due respect to parents via donor conception (and I mean that, sincerely), my thoughts around donor practices are with respect to the donor-conceived child. And, frankly, my interest in these issues is not organic but rather is inspired by the stories we frequently hear from adults of families built through either sperm donation or adoption. I hear and I understand the direction you would like to take this discussion. Your questions are both provocative and fascinating while mine are more practical and address practices like disclosure to donor of number children born from the totality of her donation history. What seems to me to be a disregard about the matter of genetic half-siblings (how many, are they tracked, is there available to the donor-conceived child comprehensive genetic and medical history) is, relative to the queries you pose, fairly easy to address.
ReplyDeleteAmy Demma, Esq
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