“It is a motherhood that must be reinvented”: lesbian mothers, assisted reproduction techniques and challenges they face

Abstract

This research analyses how lesbian couples, who have become mothers by using assisted reproductive techniques (ART), redefine or invent it in several aspects. In the first part, we analyse the impact of the legal advances (the changes in the Civil Code that allowed same sex couples to get married in 2005, and the Assisted reproduction law of 2006), and the impasses and setbacks in the applications of these laws. After that, we show the questioning of biology as the fundamental bond to establish kinship in these families, and the almost mandatory "coming out" that lesbian motherhood means for these couples. The empirical analysis is based on Falguera´s doctoral thesis (2016), which carried out forty-three in depth interviews in the province of Barcelona with lesbians who were mothers through ART in private clinics. The article concludes with some reflections about how their dilemmas, decisions and strategies challenge many of the assumptions of Sociology and Anthropology of the family in relation to filiation and kinship, among other issues, while shedding light on less known aspects which, nonetheless, are relevant both socially and academically speaking.