Mixing and Matching: Sperm Donor Selection for Interracial Lesbian Couples

Abstract

The widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies, coupled with processes of demographic and social change, are contributing to the normalization of new family configurations that extend beyond biological kinship. Non-traditional families, increasingly prevalent due to interracial and same-sex marriages, challenge normative expectations of family resemblance between siblings, parents and children. Interviews with interracial lesbian couples about their selection of a sperm donor reveal that despite the new forms of relatedness that non-traditional families enable, within the use of reproductive technologies, biological framings of race and sibling kinship continue to structure decisions about family formation.