Donor Conception For Life

This book is about the psychological experiences of women and men who have used donor conception to create their families. The authors offer diverse accounts of their clinical, research, and personal experiences. They describe the challenge of powerful conscious and unconscious fantasies that can be aroused and how these may reawaken early anxieties and developmental struggles. Whilst recipients of donated eggs or sperm may think they are simply acquiring a factor of reproduction, they are also receiving the genetic history of another family. The sensitive management of these relationships is considered in relation to establishing healthy and well-functioning families. The way these emotional challenges are negotiated is likely to be reflected in how parents talk with children about their donor origins.

Drawing on the experiences of parents, offspring and donors and including her own and her family's story, this thought-provoking and informative book explores the process of donor conception. From finding out about an infertility problem, to considering whether - and how - to tell the children about their conception, and how those children feel as the adult offspring of a donor, she provides practical suggestions as well as in-depth consideration of the emotional and ethical issues involved. Lorbach takes the reader step-by-step through the process of deciding to use donor conception, choosing a donor, and discussing the decision with others - and considers the perspective of the donor alongside those of parents and offspring. Tackling difficult subjects such as disclosure and offspring's access to information about the donor, this important book is a much-needed resource for health, counseling and social work professionals as well as for the couples and families themselves.

"This book is about the psychological experiences of women and men who have used donor conception to create their families. The authors offer diverse accounts of their clinical, research, and personal experiences. They describe the challenge of powerful conscious and unconscious fantasies that can be aroused and how these may reawaken early anxieties and developmental struggles.Whilst recipients of donated eggs or sperm may think they are simply acquiring a factor of reproduction, they are also receiving the genetic history of another family. The sensitive management of these relationships is considered in relation to establishing healthy and well-functioning families. The way these emotional challenges are negotiated is likely to be reflected in how parents talk with children about their donor origins."--Provided by publisher.

The first comprehensive book that offers invaluable step-by-step advice for families with donor-conceived children. Wendy Kramer, founder and director of the Donor Sibling Registry, and Naomi Cahn, family and reproductive law professor, have compiled a comprehensive and thorough guide for the growing community of families with donor-conceived children. Kramer and Cahn believe that all donor-conceived children’s desire to know their genetic family must be honored, and in Finding Our Families, they offer advice on how to foster healthy relationships within immediate families and their larger donor family networks based on openness and acceptance. With honesty and compassion, the authors offer thoughtful strategies and inspirational stories to help parents answer their own, and their children’s, questions and concerns that will surely arise, including: How to support your children’s curiosity and desire to know about their ancestry and genetic and medical background. How to help children integrate their birth story into a healthy self-image. How to help your children search for their donor or half siblings if and when they express interest in doing so. Finding Our Families opens up the lives of donor-conceived people who may be coping with uncertainty, thriving despite it, and finding novel ways to connect in this uncharted territory as they navigate the challenges and rewards of the world of donor conception.

With reproductive medical technologies becoming more accessible, assisted donor conception is raising new and important questions about family life. Using in-depth interviews the authors explore the lived reality of donor conception and offer insights into the complexities of these new family relationships.

"A touching children's story of how a happy couple of rabbits have their own baby by means of egg donation"--Page 4 of cover.

Drawing on interviews with donors, their kin and fertility counsellors, the authors discuss what donation stories can tell us about contemporary understandings of connectedness, time and morality in the context of reproduction and family life, and consider how reproductive ‘openness’ might be done differently.

Building Your Family is the first all-inclusive guide by experts to cover both the medical and emotional aspects of becoming a parent through donor conception. Once shrouded in secrecy, modern families built with the assistance of egg or sperm donation are growing in numbers and voice. As more people see friends, family members and celebrities use donor conception to build their families, the process has become much more mainstream and accepted. The number of donor sperm programs and egg banks have grown enormously in the past decade and the news is full of stories of athletes, journalists, and entertainers like Elton John, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Camille Guaty, and Natalie Imbruglia, who have used donor gametes to have their children. The authors, Lisa Schuman, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist, and Dr. Mark Leondires, a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist, have decades of experience working closely with patients who have chosen to use donated eggs and sperm, as well as their own personal stories of fertility treatment and non-genetic parenthood. Together, they walk readers through the medical, emotional, and genetic aspects of donor conception, common ethical dilemmas, managing relationships with friends and family members, ways to tell donor-conceived children about their origins, and strategies to cope with the challenges of fertility treatment. In a compassionate and authoritative narrative, they help hopeful parents-to-be find their way forward with confidence and joy.