Reproduction and its Discontents: The Forest of Symbols in Gamete Donation

Abstract

Gamete donation is a biomedical practice the purpose of which is to enable people who suffer from certain types of infertility (specifically having to do with the quality of their gametes) to reproduce by using other people’s gametes. The possibility of gamete donation originates in what we initially thought was a Western definition of family relationships, and in particular those of maternity and paternity, as love relationships. American anthropologist David Schneider defined the American family as an institution based upon two kinds of love: conjugal love and cognatic love. In gamete donation, love takes precedence over other cultural values that also participate in the definition of family relationships in Western societies, such the continuity of the bloodlines. It is not that people do not give any value to genetic continuity. However, due to the fact they find themselves in that particular situation (i.e. suffering from a kind of infertility that prevents them from using their own gametes) they decide to subordinate the value of genetic continuity to the value of love, which in this case is, in Schneider’s terms, cognatic love.