Third-party reproduction often entails a transformation of family dynamics and ties, which affects both the new parents and the third parties who contributed to the child’s conception. Indeed, the bonds resulting from egg, sperm or embryo donation, or from surrogacy, do not only connect children to their parents and the third parties involved. They also create a wider network that includes the previous generation, namely the parents of donors or surrogates and the parents of individuals who have a child through third-party reproduction.

There are a number of things we still do not know about this generation. What is the experience of parents of donors or surrogates? How does grandparental identity develop in grandparents whose grandchildren were born through sperm, egg donation or surrogacy? How do these grandparents understand the role and identity of the donor or surrogate? Very few studies have explored these questions. This project is the first of its kind in Canada and one of the few, globally, to investigate the experience of parents of donors or surrogates and grandparents in receiving families.

Would you like to take part in the study? Get more information here or contact us here.

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the project is led by principal investigator Isabel Côté (UQO) and co-investigators Kévin Lavoie (ULaval), Raphaële Noël (UQAM), Katherine Peloquin (UdeM), Sabrina Zeghiche (UQO) and Jerôme Courduriès (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès).