Welcome to Families of Strangers? The Socio-legal Implications of Donor Linking, an Australian Research Council funded Discovery Project that explores the impact of donor linking – the process whereby donor-conceived people, donors and recipient parents access each other’s identity – on individual and familial identities and relationships.
The global demand from the donor conception community for donor linking services is growing and insistent. Australia is a world leader in providing statutory donor linking services, though the legislative framework is uneven from state to state. At the same time, there has been a significant growth in people pursuing donor linking through non-statutory means, such as direct-to-consumer genetic testing, online registers, and searches using social media. In this project we explore how familial identities and relationships are managed, transformed or disrupted by statutory and non-statutory forms of donor linking.
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
Are you an Australian donor-conceived adult, a donor, or a parent of a donor-conceived child who has made contact with a donor relative?
If you are an Australian donor-conceived adult, sperm, egg and embryo donor, or a parent of a donor-conceived child, and you have made contact (eg, email, phone, face to face, social media) with a donor relative (eg, donor, offspring, donor sibling) we invite you to take part in our research study on donor linking. This Australian Research Council funded project is a collaboration between La Trobe University and Swinburne University of Technology. It explores the motivations and experiences of people who engage in donor linking and the impact of linking on them and their families. Participation involves an interview of approximately 60 minutes, which can be by phone, Skype (or other technology), or face-to-face (where a researcher is available). Please contact Charlotte at donor.linking@latrobe.edu.au if you would like to participate. For more information visit https://familiesofstrangers.com/.
FAMILIES OF STRANGERS 