Kinship Identities in the Context of UK Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer Legislation

Abstract

In the discussions leading up to the enactment of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015, it was repeatedly emphasised, by many commentators, that maternal spindle transfer (MST) and pronuclear transfer (PNT) did not give rise to children who could be considered as having three or more parents. This was because it was argued that only the genetic material found in the chromosomes should be considered as the determining factor for the formation of parent–child relationships and the resulting kinship identities. In this present study, however, this assertion will be questioned in the light of different kinds and different understandings of kinship identities. It will also be suggested that any person who is partly responsible for the very existence of a child, through any means, may qualify as a causal parent — a parent whom the resulting child may want to identify. As a result, a positive response should be given to a request from a person born from MST and PNT concerning identifying information for all the individuals responsible for bringing him or her into existence. In the light of this, the article will conclude that it is regrettable that the UK government enacted binding legislation making sure that children, born through MST and PNT, will never be able to contact the egg donors and, in the case of PNT, the sperm donors. This reflects a very limited understanding of who parents really are and may give rise to serious long-term psychological distress in the prospective children.

Keywords:

• kinship
• identity
• parenthood
• maternal spinder transfer
• pronuclear transfer

Notes on contributor

Calum MacKellar is Director of Research of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, Edinburgh, and a Visiting Lecturer at St Mary's University, London, UK.

Notes

1 Because of the importance and wide ranging use of these terms to so many and since it may reflect a meaning that has not yet been fully articulated or defined, these expressions will continue to be mentioned in this article in quotation marks though it should be emphasised that no offence is meant in their use.

2 See also the real case of two identical twin brothers having a sexual relationship with the same woman on the same evening (Burke 2007).