e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    The ‘Selfish Element’: How Sperm and Egg Donors Construct Plausibly Moral Accounts of the Decision to Donate

    Gilman, L ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4697-6485 (2022) The ‘Selfish Element’: How Sperm and Egg Donors Construct Plausibly Moral Accounts of the Decision to Donate. Sociology, 56 (2). pp. 227-243. ISSN 0038-0385

    [img]
    Preview
    Published Version
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (129kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated how talk of ‘good’ motives enables people to maintain the presentation of a moral self in the context of stigmatised behaviours. Far fewer have examined why people sometimes describe acting for the ‘wrong reasons’ or choose to qualify, or reject, assumptions that they are motivated by a desire to ‘do good’. In this article, I analyse one such situation: sperm donors who describe being partially motivated by a ‘selfish’ desire to procreate, a motive which these same men frame as morally questionable. I argue that such accounts are explicable if we consider the (gendered) interactional and cultural contexts in which they are produced, particularly the way interactive contexts shape the desirability and achievability of plausibility and authenticity. I suggest that analysis of similar social phenomena can support sociologists in better understanding the complex ways in which moral practices are woven into social interactions.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    8Downloads
    6 month trend
    9Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record