"Next of kin": Theorizing kinship in the age of assisted reproduction
As Euro-American kinship tends to be centred around the idea that kinship is primarily constituted by an individual’s ‘reproductive origin’, the present increase of ‘alternative’ family forms (e.g. same-sex families, single parents), as well as innovations in assisted reproduction and increased use of a reproductive ‘third party’ (e.g. a sperm or an egg donor, or a gestational surrogate) have posed new challenges to the study of kinship, as well as everyday experiences of many people, politics and legislation.
The planned project seeks to construct a theory of kinship grammars that increases our understanding of not only the variety of currently existing kinship bonds and family forms, but also dilemmas, conflicts and instances of failed kinship processes in relation to assisted reproduction – and how these are intrinsically linked to global and local power structures, cultural practices, norms and regulations. Drawing on my previous research on egg-donation abroad, surrogacy court cases, egg-freezing and transgender reproductive rights, these issues will be discussed in a research monograph preliminarily entitled ‘Next of kin: Theorizing kinship in the age of assisted reproduction’. The project seeks to offer a substantial contribution to kinship studies and to deepen our knowledge about legal, political and ethical aspects of kinship and assisted reproduction more broadly.
Final report
Next of kin: Kinship in the age of assisted reproduction
The sabbatical project “Next of kin: Kinship in the age of assisted reproduction” aimed at compiling a book with the same working title. The project was conducted between February 2019 and January 2020, of which time two months were spent as visiting professor in Gender Studies at Helsinki University.
Results
The book (whose manuscript is now under final revision for planned publication in 2022) is a work that synthesises my previous empirical and theoretical studies concerning cultural, social and political aspects of kinship that have emerged in the wake of medical technologies that have made conception outside of the human body possible (i.e. in vitro fertilisation, IVF). Drawing on empirically grounded analyses of diverse empirical materials such as court protocols, governmental investigations, media representations, websites and commercial sites for genetic testing and interviews, the book develops my theory of kinship grammars, which has previously only been described in articles in less developed form. As a whole, the book does not only show that new reproductive technologies have affected how people narrate, understand and practice kinship, but it also discusses consequences that may emerge when different kinship grammars “compete” with each other (e.g. in court cases or different ways of understanding kinship within the same family).
New discoveries
In the initial stage of the project, the main plan was to compile already existing texts (some published, other in manuscript form) and rework them into a book. The research time that the project funding made available meant, however, that I also had the opportunity to explore some new empirical materials in more depth, which I argue shed new light on kinship practices in the context of assisted reproduction. For example, one chapter now describes how intentions have come to be ascribed increased significance in the making of kinship bonds between parents and children, also in some legal contexts. This kinship grammar – the kinship grammar of parental intent – first emerged in its contemporary form in connection to a number of surrogacy court cases in the USA in the 1990s in order to solve conflicts concerning custody and parentage. The chapter shows empirically how the emergence of this kinship grammar is intimately tied to a number of other ideals and economic and cultural phenomena that were typical for this specific time period, including disparate ideas about women’s reproductive choices and right to earn money, lesbian and gay rights as well as ideas about intellectual property. Today, the kinship grammar of intent is integrated in legislations in several countries which permit commercial surrogacy.
Another aspect of the study which was further developed during the sabbatical concerns cultural understandings of sex and gender in relation to kinship, and in particular how these have affected the reproductive rights and possibilities for transgender people in the Swedish context, from a legal requirement for sterilisation to rights for fertility preservation (cryopreservation of gametes). The book discusses how these new rights and possibilities further challenges conceptulisations of parental kinship, not least concerning motherhood and fatherhood. During the period of the sabbatical it became increasingly clear that these new rights are increasingly questioned by so-called anti-gender movements, which mobilise transnationally against not only reproductive rights such as abortion but also different forms of assisted reproduction (especially including a donor or a surrogate) and gender affirmation care for transgender people. Issues concerning kinship is thus central for these movements, which strive to recover and protect the heterosexual nuclear family with clearly defined gender roles and their “own” biological children. Based on these insights, the book project was extended with a new chapter dealing specifically with this issue.
Another theme that was developed further during the time of the sabbatical and resulted in a new hitherto unpublished chapter was new empirical materials from websites with testimonies from people searching for genetic relatives (donors or so-called donor-siblings) with the help of commercial genetic tests. To add these new materials did, on the one hand, make the work on the book take somewhat linger than initially planned, but resulted in increased rigour and scholarly relevance. Importantly, it significantly improved the theoretical framework that the book presents.
Visiting professorship
The two months that were spent at Helsinki University offered opportunities to make contact with and initiate future collaborations with several Finnish scholars. Central for the stay was my collaboration with the research group CoreKim (Contrasting and Re-Imagining the Margins of Kinship), but also cooperation with the SKY Doctoral Programme, which has continued also after the end of the sabbatical. As part of the visiting professorship I also gave a public talk within the Christina Advanced Research Seminar lecture series, which was also streamed online to reach a larger audience.
The sabbatical project “Next of kin: Kinship in the age of assisted reproduction” aimed at compiling a book with the same working title. The project was conducted between February 2019 and January 2020, of which time two months were spent as visiting professor in Gender Studies at Helsinki University.
Results
The book (whose manuscript is now under final revision for planned publication in 2022) is a work that synthesises my previous empirical and theoretical studies concerning cultural, social and political aspects of kinship that have emerged in the wake of medical technologies that have made conception outside of the human body possible (i.e. in vitro fertilisation, IVF). Drawing on empirically grounded analyses of diverse empirical materials such as court protocols, governmental investigations, media representations, websites and commercial sites for genetic testing and interviews, the book develops my theory of kinship grammars, which has previously only been described in articles in less developed form. As a whole, the book does not only show that new reproductive technologies have affected how people narrate, understand and practice kinship, but it also discusses consequences that may emerge when different kinship grammars “compete” with each other (e.g. in court cases or different ways of understanding kinship within the same family).
New discoveries
In the initial stage of the project, the main plan was to compile already existing texts (some published, other in manuscript form) and rework them into a book. The research time that the project funding made available meant, however, that I also had the opportunity to explore some new empirical materials in more depth, which I argue shed new light on kinship practices in the context of assisted reproduction. For example, one chapter now describes how intentions have come to be ascribed increased significance in the making of kinship bonds between parents and children, also in some legal contexts. This kinship grammar – the kinship grammar of parental intent – first emerged in its contemporary form in connection to a number of surrogacy court cases in the USA in the 1990s in order to solve conflicts concerning custody and parentage. The chapter shows empirically how the emergence of this kinship grammar is intimately tied to a number of other ideals and economic and cultural phenomena that were typical for this specific time period, including disparate ideas about women’s reproductive choices and right to earn money, lesbian and gay rights as well as ideas about intellectual property. Today, the kinship grammar of intent is integrated in legislations in several countries which permit commercial surrogacy.
Another aspect of the study which was further developed during the sabbatical concerns cultural understandings of sex and gender in relation to kinship, and in particular how these have affected the reproductive rights and possibilities for transgender people in the Swedish context, from a legal requirement for sterilisation to rights for fertility preservation (cryopreservation of gametes). The book discusses how these new rights and possibilities further challenges conceptulisations of parental kinship, not least concerning motherhood and fatherhood. During the period of the sabbatical it became increasingly clear that these new rights are increasingly questioned by so-called anti-gender movements, which mobilise transnationally against not only reproductive rights such as abortion but also different forms of assisted reproduction (especially including a donor or a surrogate) and gender affirmation care for transgender people. Issues concerning kinship is thus central for these movements, which strive to recover and protect the heterosexual nuclear family with clearly defined gender roles and their “own” biological children. Based on these insights, the book project was extended with a new chapter dealing specifically with this issue.
Another theme that was developed further during the time of the sabbatical and resulted in a new hitherto unpublished chapter was new empirical materials from websites with testimonies from people searching for genetic relatives (donors or so-called donor-siblings) with the help of commercial genetic tests. To add these new materials did, on the one hand, make the work on the book take somewhat linger than initially planned, but resulted in increased rigour and scholarly relevance. Importantly, it significantly improved the theoretical framework that the book presents.
Visiting professorship
The two months that were spent at Helsinki University offered opportunities to make contact with and initiate future collaborations with several Finnish scholars. Central for the stay was my collaboration with the research group CoreKim (Contrasting and Re-Imagining the Margins of Kinship), but also cooperation with the SKY Doctoral Programme, which has continued also after the end of the sabbatical. As part of the visiting professorship I also gave a public talk within the Christina Advanced Research Seminar lecture series, which was also streamed online to reach a larger audience.