Toward a family-building approach to donor insemination

Donor insemination (DI) is the oldest and simplest method of "treating" male infertility. The medical profession, prospective parents, legislators, and society in general are increasingly recognizing that providing DI services involves far more than facilitation of conception. This paper explores a multidisciplinary family-building approach to DI as an alternative to a treatment-of-infertility approach, and describes the need to provide patients with a broader and deeper preparation for this special type of parenthood. The short-term medical ease of the procedure is contrasted with the complexity and seriousness of the long-term social and psychological issues generated for the gamete provider, the recipient couple, and the offspring by the secrecy surrounding the procedure.