Isabel Côté

Professor in the department of social work at Université du Québec en Outaouais
isabel.cote@uqo.ca
819-595-3900 poste 2334

Isabel Côté (she/her) is a professor in the department of social work at Université du Québec en Outaouais. She is a member of Partenariat Famille en mouvance (a research partnership on the changing family) and of the Réseau québécois en études féministes (RéQEF) (a Québec network for feminist studies), and she co-directs the UNIE-LGBTQ Research Partnership (Understanding the Inclusion and Exclusion of LGBTQ People). Her research program aims to develop a global understanding of third-party reproduction that brings together the viewpoints of all parties, meaning parents, surrogates, the children conceived through surrogacy, and the extended families. Using innovative qualitative methodologies, her work draws on the theoretical contributions of sociology of the family, kinship anthropology, and feminist and LGBTQ studies, and takes a fresh look at contemporary family realities. In an innovative way, her work considers children as full agents in the construction of knowledge about families created thanks to third-party reproduction. Lastly, the results of her work provide material, based on empirical data, to inform the social debate about the issues raised by third-party reproduction while also suggesting courses of action to better support the well-being of the people concerned.

Publications

  • Scientific paper

    Constrained Choices: Navigating Agency and Social Structures in Sperm Donor Selection

    Sociology of Health and Illness (2026)
  • Scientific paper

    Using online platforms to offer or seek sperm donation: A systematised narrative review of donor and recipient experiences

    Human Fertility (2025)
  • Scientific paper

    Procréation assistée par autrui et fragmentation de la maternité : le piège du récit unique

    Canadian Journal of Family Law / Revue canadienne de droit familial (2025)
  • Book chapter

    Some Ethical and Methodological Issues in Research Involving Culturally Diverse Children

    Research with Refugee Children and Families: Ethical Dilemmas and Methodological Insights, pp. 98-128, UBC Press (2025)
  • Book chapter

    Team Meeting and Field Notes as Sources for Reflecting on the Challenges of Engaging Children as Research Partners

    Qualitative Fieldwork with Children: Context and Participation in Child Well-Being Research across Nations, pp. 207-223, Bristol University Press (2025)
  • Research report

    Accès à la procréation médicalement assistée (PMA) pour les personnes LGBTQ+ : réalités, obstacles et éléments facilitants

    Coalition des familles LGBT+, Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la procréation pour autrui et les liens familiaux, Centre de recherche Jeunes, familles et réponses sociales (JEFAR) [2025]

Projects

  • Narratives within families with children conceived via sperm donation

  • STORIES: Self, Transmission, Origins, Representations, and Identity among Donor-Conceived Teenagers and their Families

  • My Mother’s Surrogacy

  • Surrogates’ Voices

Related contents

  • The Chair in the media

    La gestation pour autrui : Entrevue avec Isabel Côté

    Le genre humain (2024)
  • Fact sheet

    REV – How do the children of surrogates experience the process of their mother handing over the baby to the intended parents?

    MY MOTHER’S SURROGACY Research Team (2024)
  • Fact sheet

    REV – How do the children of surrogates experience the surrogacy of their mother?

    MY MOTHER’S SURROGACY Research Team (2024)
  • Fact sheet

    REV – How do children of surrogates react when they are told about their mother’s surrogacy?

    MY MOTHER’S SURROGACY Research Team (2024)
  • Video

    EN – Démystifions en 60s le désir de connaître ou non l’identité du donneur ou de la donneuse

    Let’s debunk in 60 sec preconceived ideas about third-party reproduction (2024)
  • Video

    EN – La Chaire vous présente son projet Grands-parents

    Spotlight on our research projects (2024)