Isabel Côté

Professor in the department of social work at Université du Québec en Outaouais
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

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

    Sociology of Health and Illness (2026)
  • Using online platforms to offer or seek sperm donation: A systematised narrative review of donor and recipient experiences

    Human Fertility (2025)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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

  • EN – POV: When you explain the difference between a mom and a surrogate

    POV: When your mom is a surrogate (2024)
  • EN – POV: The first time you meet the baby your mom carried for another family

    POV: When your mom is a surrogate (2024)
  • EN – POV: When you think about the pros and cons of your mom carrying a baby for another family

    POV: When your mom is a surrogate (2024)
  • EN – POV: When you worry about your mom being a surrogate

    POV: When your mom is a surrogate (2024)
  • EN – POV: When you’re trying to find words to talk about the baby your mom is carrying for another family

    POV: When your mom is a surrogate (2024)
  • EN – La Chaire vous présente son projet Enfants Femmes Porteuses

    Spotlight on our research projects (2023)