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SUMMARY:In Search of Doctors\, Donors and Daddies: Lesbian Reproductive De
 cision-Making - Dr Róisín Ryan-Flood\, Department of Sociology\, Univers
 ity of Essex
DTSTART:20070605T120000Z
DTEND:20070605T130000Z
UID:TALK7222@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Rosie Ensor
DESCRIPTION:A growing number of lesbian women are choosing to embark on pa
 renthood in the context of an openly lesbian lifestyle. Previous research 
 has often focused on the experiences of children in these families. More r
 ecently\, researchers have turned their attention to the subjectivities of
  lesbian parents themselves. This paper will explore sexual citizenship an
 d lesbian reproductive decision-making in two European countries. The ways
  in which lesbians may reinvent prevailing discourses of parenthood in loc
 al contexts has rarely been addressed. In this paper\, discourses of fathe
 rhood among lesbian parents in Sweden and the Republic of Ireland are expl
 ored\, based on interviews with 68 participants. Lesbian parents in both c
 ountries shared a preference for a known donor. However\, Swedish lesbian 
 parents placed a strong emphasis on a donor who would play an active paren
 ting role. In contrast\, Irish participants preferred donors to have no in
 volvement in parenting. The significance of biology to kinship was both de
 stabilised and reinforced\, while gender and parenting discourses were als
 o reinvented in complex ways. Reproductive decision-making among lesbian p
 arents reflects hegemonic discourses of fatherhood in both countries. The 
 ways that these discourses are subverted and reinscribed reveals the situa
 tedness of lesbian parents in national contexts\, where the ‘Other’ is
  also nonetheless deeply embedded in local discourses. This therefore enab
 les a reconsideration of ‘queering’ by lesbian parent subjects\, whose
  reproductive decision-making may be characterised by both subversive and 
 normative aspects in complex ways.
LOCATION:Room 606\, Centre for Family Research
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