In the article “Who’s on the Family Tree? Now It’s Complicated” of New York Times, the author explains that having children by using donor’s sperm makes the relationship between people and the family tree become more complicated in our society. Moreover, can cause pains to kids in an unexpected way. Jennifer Williams helps her sister Laura Ashmore to have a baby girl named Mallory with donor’s sperm because Ashmore and her husband cannot conceive a child. At that time, she lives with her lesbian partner and already has a biological son, Jamison who also is conceived through a sperm donor. After Mallory is born, the sister’s lives become more complex. They both wonder where Mallory should sit on their family tree and how she can call for Jennifer. Even though they all agree that Jennifer is Mallory’s aunt, Jennifer’s son Jamison sometime still mentions Mallory as his sister at home. Therefore, there is no space for the sperm donors in Ashmore’s family tree. In contrast, Sue Stuever Battel and Bob Battel include their four children in their family tree even though only one of four is conceived naturally. Actually, they conceive one with a sperm donor and adopt two toddler boys. They also outline the life of their children’s birth parents as baby books for their four kids. On the other hand, Rob Okun as a sperm donator of a lesbian couple, Patria Kogut and Lynne Dahlborg keeps
connection with each other. Interestingly, he even includes the children who born with his donated sperm in his own family tree after his mother die.
This article is related to our class because it also describes the family relation and kin connection when the construction of families is through donor insemination. In our class, we have discussed that the different experiences of many couples construct their families by using sperm donors or adoptions. Some of them believe that kinship is more like a process in which is revealed to be social constructions. We also discussed about that it could be a bad influence on the children’s behavior and character development if they know their true origins.
