Beyond motivation: On what it means to be a sperm donor in Denmark
2014 (English)In: Anthropology & Medicine, ISSN 1364-8470, E-ISSN 1469-2910, Vol. 21, no 2, p. 162-173Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This paper, analyzing interviews with men that donate their semen in Denmark, explores what it means to be a sperm donor. Breaking with the assumption that men have a specific and clearly identifiable motivation to become sperm donors, this paper leaves the confinement of such an accountable actor model implied in asking for men's motivations to donate semen. Instead, the author describes the experiences of sperm donors to show how the moral, organizational, and biomedical-technological context of sperm donation in Denmark makes for enactments of moral selves as well as specific embodiments of masculinity. Instead of looking for motivations that can be accounted for, the author engages with the question of how donating semen affords men the experience of moral and gendered selves This paper, analyzing interviews with men that donate their semen in Denmark, explores what it means to be a sperm donor. Breaking with the assumption that men have a specific and clearly identifiable motivation to become sperm donors, this paper leaves the confinement of such an accountable actor model implied in asking for men's motivations to donate semen. Instead, the author describes the experiences of sperm donors to show how the moral, organizational, and biomedical-technological context of sperm donation in Denmark makes for enactments of moral selves as well as specific embodiments of masculinity. Instead of looking for motivations that can be accounted for, the author engages with the question of how donating semen affords men the experience of moral and gendered selves
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Vol. 21, no 2, p. 162-173
Keywords [en]
anthropology, Denmark, donation, donor, donors, embodiment, experience, interview, interviews, IT, masculinities, masculinity, medicine, men, motivation, self, semen, sperm, sperm donation, sperm donor, sperm donors
National Category
Social Anthropology
Research subject
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-66804DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2014.914806ISI: 000348326500006PubMedID: 25175292OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-66804DiVA, id: diva2:1193221
2018-03-262018-03-262018-08-16Bibliographically approved