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Donors we choose: race, nation and the biopolitics of (queer) assisted reproduction in Scandinavia

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Abstract

In the 2000s, same sex partnership laws, new reproductive technologies, and legislation rendering lesbian couples and single women eligible for state-funded assisted reproduction with donated gametes in the Scandinavian nations has resulted in significant changes in family formation. Drawing on two separate qualitative studies, this paper scrutinizes Scandinavia’s alleged progressive LGBTQ politics by critically examining how ideas of kinship, race and nation shape ideas of ‘donor matching’ amongst queer parents in Sweden and Denmark. Through empirical analysis, we explore how the conditional invitation of queers into family making via state regulated assisted reproduction is entangled with racialised medical and commercial choices of donors that reflect historically specific ideas of race. In particular, we show how whiteness is framed as desirable and how being ‘racialised non-white’ is framed as a risk that ought to be minimised for children who are already considered ‘disadvantaged’ by being born into ‘queer’ families. Thus, we argue that contemporary queer reproduction is not only central to homonationalism, it can also be seen as a continuation of eugenic and biopolitical initiatives that have been central to the emergence of Scandinavian welfare states. We conclude by proposing further scrutiny of contemporary queer reproduction as a potential ‘white-washing’ technique to manage populations.

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Notes

  1. There are important differences between the three Scandinavian nations, including when it comes to assisted reproduction for differently situated parents. The full extent of these differences is the subject of a new and ongoing research project entitled Scandinavian Border Crossings: Race and Nation in Queer Assisted Reproduction (Forte 2021–2023, project number 2020-00525). As we shall show below, in the present article, empirical data are drawn from the authors’ previous research projects in Denmark and Sweden only.

  2. Geographically, the Nordic region also includes Finland, Iceland, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and the Faroe Islands. Sápmi, the territory inhabited by the Sami people, stretches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. However, in our analysis of race and racial imaginaries, we use the term ‘Nordic’, which has historically been associated with racial whiteness and the white population of Scandinavia.

  3. This ethnographic project also involved conversations in settings where queer parents assembled, including LGBTQ community spaces, play dates, queer bars and informal gatherings. Dahl’s research was conducted within the project Queer(y)ing Kinship in the Baltic Region, funded by the Baltic Sea Foundation (2014–2018).

  4. In line with research (Hertz 2006; Ravn 2017) pointing to the continued stigma attached to singlehood, we call these lesbian/queer/heterosexual mothers ‘solo mothers’ rather than ‘single mothers by choice’, also to mark that solo parenting may not mean that one is romantically single.

  5. In order to protect their anonymity, some identifying characteristics have been altered.

  6. RFSL stands for The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights. The survey is entitled “HBTQ persons’ experiences and needs related to paths to parenthood and engagement with children" (In Swedish: Nationell enkät om hbtq-personers erfarenheter och behov kopplat till föräldraskap och umgänge med barn). The data is owned and stored by RFSL.

  7. Personal communication with clinical staff at a public fertility clinic in Sweden, May 2021.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript is comprised of original material and is not under review elsewhere. The studies on which the research is based are in compliance with appropriate ethical standards and review in Sweden and Denmark. The authors have no competing interests – intellectual or financial – in the research detailed in the manuscript. The authors wish to thank interviewees in Sweden and Denmark, colleagues at the Centre for Gender Research and the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Racism at Uppsala University and the three anonymous reviewers for very helpful feedback. Please note that this is a jointly written article and both authors are first authors. 

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  1. Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, Box 527, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ulrika Dahl

  2. Department of Communications and Art, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Rikke Andreassen

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Dahl, U., Andreassen, R. Donors we choose: race, nation and the biopolitics of (queer) assisted reproduction in Scandinavia. BioSocieties 18, 79–101 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-021-00256-2

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