Abstract

LIMA, Natacha Salomé. The vicissitudes of identity and identification within the framework of heterologous conception. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2018, vol.35, n.2, pp.381-394. ISSN 1668-7027.

The donation of gametes (eggs/sperm) or heterologous fertilization as a consequence of high-complexity assisted reproduction procedure has raised many questions. Should people know that they were conceived with donated gametes? What information can they access? Although the anonymity vs. non-anonymity debate of gamete donation is not new, we are witnessing a shift in which guidelines suggest disclosure and openness, but leave the final decision to the parents. While local and international professional guidelines (ASRM. Ethics Committee. Informing offspring of their conception by gamete or embryo donation: A committee opinion. American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Fertility and Sterility, 2013; Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Donor conception: ethical aspects of information sharing. London, 2013; The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. Code of Practice 8th edition. London, 2015) recommend disclosures of genetic information at an early age, the facts reveal that people face many troubles to disclose this information to their children. Is this going against people's right to identity? In other words, can reproductive choices affect an individual´s identity? The following essay explores the notion of identity and its relation with the psychoanalytical term of identification (Freud-Lacan) aiming to develop a novel perspectives to address the present discussion. It provides also an examination of selected articles of the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code (2015), extracted from the Family Relations section (Arts. 401-723), trying to show the inherent contradictions and difficulties express in the regulatory domain to address the filiatory aspects. In conclusion, it may be said that identity is a concept that need to be build considering many and diverse features. Within the technical procedures of gamete donation, complex processes of subjectivation are involved which are necessary to investigate. Personal identity is rooted in identification traits, which are not fully dependent on the right to know the donor's identifying information, but are connected to singular constitutional process, which implies the elaboration of the subjective positioning in the family novel.

Keywords : Identity; Identification; Filiation; Reproductive technologies; Bioethics.

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