Giving or giving back: New psychosocial insights from sperm donors in France

Abstract

Despite the growing importance of the international scientific literature concerning donor insemination, studies of French samples are rare. We recently had the opportunity to conduct a nationwide study on psychosocial issues related to semen donation in France. In this article, we present the main results of an analysis of the narratives of 33 sperm donors. We examine the meaning they attribute to this experience, their motivations, the social ramifications of their action, and their perspective on the principles of sperm donation in France. We highlight our results by comparing them to those derived from other recent international studies in different legislative contexts. Finally, we suggest a hypothesis regarding donor motivations based on recent literature in social sciences regarding the fundamental role of gift and reciprocity. These issues, particularly the anonymity of gamete donation, are currently at the heart of a national debate related to the expected revision of the French bioethics law.

Keywords:

• donor insemination
• French donors
• motivations
• gift
• social representations

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Biomedicine Agency Research Grant (n° 2006-901) and by a Rhône-Alpes Council Grant (n° 0602279801-TZ014) to Nikos Kalampalikis. We are grateful to the French Federation of Cecos for their research partnership. We extend our most sincere thanks to the participants in this research.

Notes

1. The code numbers for the interviews refer to: E (interview), number, s: spontaneous, r: relational, c: converted.