Disciplined parents and autonomous children: information sharing as governing device in Swedish identity-release gamete donation

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses shifts and continuities in Swedish regulation of information sharing in identity-release donor conception. At a time when families include both solo and same-sex parenting, I draw on a practice-oriented method to compare legal and pre-legislative documents from the early 1980s with those of the late 2010s as developed in a Swedish national context. Following the turn to openness in donor conception, I discuss the practical implications of framing access to information from the hospitals’ so-called ‘special medical record’ as a children’s right, when information is in fact only available after ‘maturity’ is reached. Furthermore, I show how a significant change in the understanding of child–parent relationships in donor-conceived families is articulated in the 2019 legislation. If early policy documents portrayed donor-conceived children as potentially problematic for not ‘knowing their origin’, I argue that now it is parents in donor-conceived families who are constructed as potentially problematic. Drawing on critical kinship theory, I conclude that Swedish policy-making on information sharing in donor conception relies on a symbolic rather than material understanding of genetic relatedness that fails to acknowledge how different family forms might have different needs. Based on these findings, I suggest that policymakers take into account the implications a changing view on family life and genetics have for children and parents following donor conception.