The Racial Matching of Gamete Donors in UK Fertility Clinics

Race is a deeply contested concept; however, race and related characteristics, including ethnicity and skin tone, are frequently provided with gamete donor information, implicating race in donor selection at UK fertility clinics. While existing literature shows that fertility professionals might sometimes seek a racial match between the donor and the patient(s), the role that race plays, if any, in donor selection has been relatively underexplored. By adopting a constructivist model of race and applying empirical evidence gathered through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with clinicians, counsellors and nurses, this thesis identifies if and how race plays a role in donor selection and whether patients and gamete donors are racially matched. It examines the nature and degree of involvement of fertility professionals in this matter and evaluates if a concern for race may be operationalised in 'routine' clinical practice or 'problem' cases where patients raise a query or challenge norms. The findings demonstrate how race operates as a social construction where biological or essentialist notions of race are reproduced through racial matching and assumptions within the donor selection process. However, the construction of race is also observed to be linked to themes of privacy, identity and autonomy, presenting a complex and nuanced picture overall. Fertility professionals are seen to play an integral role in how race is deployed in donor selection. While assumptions around race-kinship congruity result from the problematising of racial mismatching, the findings also describe sensitive and meaningful interaction with patients' understandings of kinship and the construction of relatedness. These findings raise important normative considerations for fertility practice and policy in this unique sphere of interaction between patient, donor and clinic.