5 Towards an Understanding of Embryo Donation ... 129in Australia, have argued that while in Western societies a number of
meanings may be ascribed to sperm, in the context of assisted repro-
duction sperm have increasingly been treated as alienable commodities.
However, by positioning donors as benevolent, donors are given a posi-
tive identity as persons, not just as providers of a commodity.
Further, by seeing the donation as a form of gift-giving rather than
a transaction that could be completed, the idea of donors as ‘faceless’
people that could be kept at a distance was negated. Instead, the gifting
metaphor rendered the donors visible, and located donors and recipi-
ents within a giving-receiving-and-reciprocating dynamic, where gifts
serve to establish ongoing reciprocity relations between donors and
recipients (Shaw 2008 , 2010 , 2012 ). This again positions ED as a rela-
tional practice.
For example, while recipients described the donors’ act as generous,
kind-hearted, and motivated by selflessness, several described feeling
not only grateful, but also indebted to the donors. Similar findings have
been reported in relation to sperm donation (Daniels and Lewis 1996 ).
While donors were very clear that they did not expect any financial
compensation for the donation, several regarded the gift-giving as posi-
tioning the recipients as indebted to the donors. There was an expecta-
tion, for example, that recipients would acknowledge the ‘gift’ they had
been given by respecting the information-exchange and contact arrange-
ments that had been negotiated. A few donors and recipients also felt
that, in recognition of the donors’ act, the recipients could offer to
assume the costs associated with ED (including the donors’ counselling
and legal fees).
Some recipients were initially concerned that their feelings of indebt-
edness would lead them to accept a greater degree of involvement from
the donors than they were comfortable with, but these fears tended to
diminish over time. Further, several donors distanced themselves from
a need to be reciprocated for the donation. Instead, they regarded
themselves as donating out of a sense of gratitude for the gift they had
received: the gift of children. These donors had fewer expectations of
acknowledgement. Other donors and recipients regarded ED as prac-
tice that was mutually beneficial: allowing donors to achieve a solution
to their dilemma (of having precious surplus embryos that they did
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