Making ‘bad’ deaths ‘good’: the kinship consequences of posthumous conception

Abstract

Recent developments in assisted reproduction mean that a child may now be born long after its father’s demise. Acts of posthumous conception raise a host of complex ethical and social issues. The article draws attention to these by means of an analysis of the medical, legal, and political commentaries generated by the case of Diane Blood in her dispute with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which had prevented her from using her deceased husband’s sperm to become pregnant. Analysis of this and similar cases reveals that the desire for offspring following the death of a husband or partner has significant consequences for notions of marriage, paternity, memoriam, and inheritance .The article identifies as an underlying theme in acts of posthumous conception an attempt to ameliorate the grief of a widow, a family, and the wider society by making ‘bad’ deaths to some extent ‘good’. To achieve this transformation the meaning of sperm within reproductive transactions is subject to radical reinterpretations which simultaneously commodotize and sacralize human gametes.