In recent years, many cases of insemination fraud have been revealed internationally and in the Netherlands. Fertility doctors used their own or donor semen instead of the spouses’, and/or used semen from individual donors, to conceive children on a sometimes very large scale. Additionally, in many cases, the registration of the use of donor semen was lacking.
This project investigates how this insemination fraud and other (from today’s perspective) malpractices in fertility treatments were possible in the Netherlands between 1945 and 2004. Therefore, a three-pronged strategy is used:
- Research into the public debate about artificial insemination with donor semen (AID) among experts (medics, psychiatrists, pedagogues) as well as in mass media (newspapers, radio, tv). Which cultural assumptions governed the discourse on AID and matters like secrecy, anonymity, and medics’ control of the process?
- Research into medical practice, professional regulations, and oversight. What space did these create for the autonomy of fertility doctors?
- Research into the political debate and the (slow) road towards legal regulation of AID. Why did it take until 2004 before the government implemented rules for fertility treatments and abolished donor anonymity?
The central question of the project is how these three domains produced the space for said practices to take place.
Contribute to this research
Are you a parent, donor, donor-conceived offspring, (former) doctor or assistant, or otherwise someone who has been involved with said themes? Are you interested in contributing to this research project, for example via an in-depth interview? Please contact the researcher at adriejan.vanveen [at] ru.nl (adriejan[dot]vanveen[at]ru[dot]nl).
