Authors: Kévin Lavoie & Isabel Côté
First published: February 2023
Objective: This article explores the interactions and digital practices of people involved in an online community dedicated to surrogacy and egg donation in the province of Québec, Canada.
Background: Sociodigital networks, with the emergence of platforms such as Facebook groups, provide a space to discuss assisted reproduction, seek advice, offer support, and connect with other Internet users to negotiate and establish a third-party reproduction agreement.
Method: This study is based on a long-term ethnographic field within a Facebook group, and individual interviews conducted with 22 members of this community. The data collected were analyzed inductively according to the principles of grounded theory.
Results: Three themes emerged from the online interactions and stories of the women we met. First, the publication of intended parents’ testimonies is the preferred method of finding a surrogate or egg donor match and is reminiscent of the language and rituals associated with dating sites. Second, the expression of legal and financial concerns occupies a prominent place in the group discussions, given the lack of a legislative framework in this Canadian province and the variability of interpretations of the current legal framework. Third, the choice made by surrogates and donors to be involved in an online community is not random and sometimes indicates of a desire to establish a sense of control over the process and to negotiate the modalities without the presence of an intermediary.
Conclusion and implications: Facebook groups dedicated to infertility and assisted reproduction appear to be more than simply matchmakers, as the interactions that occur there perform various functions. In the absence of a formal organization dedicated to parents, surrogates, and donors in Québec, the online community becomes a place for information sharing, support, and networking. This offers avenues of intervention for professionals who need to reflect on and consider how online communities dedicated to third-party reproduction may influence their practice.
Author note: The MATRICES study (Maternités assistées par tierces reproductrices) has benefitted from financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Réseau québécois en études féministes (RéQEF), and the Faculty of Social Sciences at Université Laval. The first wave of data collection (2016–2018) obtained approval from the Université de Montréal Arts and Sciences Research Ethics Board, while the second wave (2021) was authorized by the Université Laval Research Ethics Board. This article is a revised and updated version of a book chapter from the edited book Perspectives internationales sur la gestation pour autrui: expériences des personnes concernées et contextes d’action published in 2018 by the Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Funding information: Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval; Réseau québécois en études féministes (RéQEF); Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
