Sperm donors as assisters of reproduction in single women

Abstract

The political as opposed to the natural constitution of ancient families for some authors is associated with the fiction of patriarchy (Pateman, C. (1988). The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 19). This had meaning as a form of political power, which when introduced referred only to the sexual domination of the rule of husbands and fathers in the smallest unit of society. Only afterwards did the fiction of patriarchy take on the broader meaning of a dominating class, and thus a universal feature of human society. Accordingly, the representatives of this view consider the father's role in a family to be strictly conventional (i.e. imposed by force) and the family, therefore, is seen only as an artificial institution that negotiates the roles of its members, just as society does. Under these terms, the patriarchal family is not based on biological or natural ties, but on “legal fiction” (Pateman referred to the term “legal fiction” which was used by Sir Henry Maine in Maine, H. J. S. (1917). Ancient Law. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, p. 76. Available online as part of the Gutenberg Ebooks, Chapter II: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22910/22910-h/22910-h.htm). While the mother's biological participation has always been certain, since she is the one who physically gives birth to the child, paternity has had to be discovered or invented, becoming only a human creation. This fiction, however, served the political purpose of keeping the family together. Thus, the “fiction of adoption” and the “reality of kinship” were considered equal as long as the family's formation was maintained. By comparison, ancient families were not that different from contemporary families founded on adoptions or sperm donations. Again, the role of the father here is negotiated – the “legal fiction” of the husband/partner when sperm is donated to a couple and his absence when sperm is donated to single women. Regardless of genetics, the absence of a social and legal father in a child's life can also occur in single-mother families where the parents conceived via coitus. Nevertheless, lacking both a genetic and a social father can only be ascribed to single women – parents by choice. Is fatherhood that unimportant?