Conférence de l’EASA 2020
Colloques, journées d’études, conférences
16è Conférence biannuelle de l’Association Européenne des Anthropologues Sociaux (EASA), New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe, 20-24 Juillet 2020, Virtual Lisbon conference
ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon and ICS-Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Anaïs Martin participera à la conférence biannuelle de l’European Association of Social Anthropology le 22 juillet 2020 dans le cadre du panel « Rethinking margins through personhood » organisé par le groupe EnCoRe. A partir de ses travaux réalisés dans le cadre de l’ANR Origines, elle présentera une intervention intitulée : « ’You’re half of that person genetically’ : searching for origins in the experience of sperm donor conceived adults (UK, France) ».
Résumé de son intervention :
A few months after doing a DNA test, Amy, who was conceived thanks to an anonymous sperm donation in the 1990s in the United Kingdom (UK), was matched with a « half-sibling » on a genetic genealogy website. She expresses how strange she feels about being related to a stranger : « I find it quite hard to understand in the sense of I think it’s really strange how you’re half of the person genetically ».
Origins have emerged as a central notion in the definition of personal identity in contemporary Euro-American societies. In new kinship forms such as donor conception, where procreation and kinship do not overlap, the connection to donors and donor siblings questions the link between kinship and personhood. What does it mean to be genetically related to a donor and/or a donor sibling ? What impact does the knowledge of such connections have on the way donor offspring define themselves ? This paper will explore how origins in donor conception question personhood and the notion of identity from the point of view of donor offspring. I will focus more specifically on searches for origins through DNA testing and genetic genealogy websites.
The paper relies on a social anthropology qualitative study conducted between October 2017 and December 2019 through in-depths interviews with 52 sperm donor conceived adults in the UK (27) and in France (25). Among them, 30 have searched for origins through DNA testing and 20 have found the donor, a member of his family, and/or a donor sibling.
Voir en ligne : EASA 2020
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