TY - JOUR
T1 - Research protocol for forging new families in contemporary contexts
T2 - the online sperm donation project
AU - Turner-Moore, Rhys
AU - Smith, Lauren A.
AU - Taylor-Phillips, Francesca
AU - Forshall, Georgina
AU - Krotoski, Aleksandra
AU - Carless, David
AU - Frith, Lucy
AU - Palmer, Tanya
AU - Pacey, Allan
AU - Jones, Georgina L.
PY - 2025/10/8
Y1 - 2025/10/8
N2 - People looking for sperm (‘recipients’) and people providing sperm (‘donors’) are increasingly connecting via informal online platforms, such as ‘connection websites’ and social networking sites. Typically, research has not focused on this route to conception. Little is known about how people involved in online sperm donation initiate, negotiate, sustain or end their relationships with each other, how power or influence operates within this context, or what the impacts of these influences might be. Previous research has suggested that abuses of power and morally challenging behaviour can occur. The first aim of this project is to explore the interpersonal relationships, power relations and potential abuses of power across the social ecology of online sperm donation. The second aim is to harness this new knowledge to explore the imagined ideal futures of those involved in online sperm donation and to work with them to start to realize these ideal futures. The project comprises three phases: (1) a two-year qualitative longitudinal study following the lives of prospective recipients, donors, and their partners via life story interviews, visual socio-ecological power narratives, and interaction logs; (2) a one-year digital ethnography of five online sperm donation sites; (3) action research workshops with recipients and their partners, donors and their partners, and platform owners, respectively. The multi-modal data will be analysed using narrative, discourse, and thematic analysis. The project will be carried out by a multi-disciplinary team, comprising academics and researchers with psychosocial, bioethical, medical, and legal expertise, and Public Involvement in Research members with lived experience of online sperm donation. The project will produce unique and holistic knowledge of online sperm donation and harness this knowledge to produce impacts across the social ecology that are identified by, and important to, those involved in online sperm donation.
AB - People looking for sperm (‘recipients’) and people providing sperm (‘donors’) are increasingly connecting via informal online platforms, such as ‘connection websites’ and social networking sites. Typically, research has not focused on this route to conception. Little is known about how people involved in online sperm donation initiate, negotiate, sustain or end their relationships with each other, how power or influence operates within this context, or what the impacts of these influences might be. Previous research has suggested that abuses of power and morally challenging behaviour can occur. The first aim of this project is to explore the interpersonal relationships, power relations and potential abuses of power across the social ecology of online sperm donation. The second aim is to harness this new knowledge to explore the imagined ideal futures of those involved in online sperm donation and to work with them to start to realize these ideal futures. The project comprises three phases: (1) a two-year qualitative longitudinal study following the lives of prospective recipients, donors, and their partners via life story interviews, visual socio-ecological power narratives, and interaction logs; (2) a one-year digital ethnography of five online sperm donation sites; (3) action research workshops with recipients and their partners, donors and their partners, and platform owners, respectively. The multi-modal data will be analysed using narrative, discourse, and thematic analysis. The project will be carried out by a multi-disciplinary team, comprising academics and researchers with psychosocial, bioethical, medical, and legal expertise, and Public Involvement in Research members with lived experience of online sperm donation. The project will produce unique and holistic knowledge of online sperm donation and harness this knowledge to produce impacts across the social ecology that are identified by, and important to, those involved in online sperm donation.
KW - assisted conception
KW - sperm donation
KW - recipient
KW - donor
KW - power
KW - abuse
KW - qualitative longitudinal
KW - narrative analysis
KW - digital ethnography
KW - action research
U2 - 10.1177/16094069251338911
DO - 10.1177/16094069251338911
M3 - Article
SN - 1609-4069
VL - 24
JO - International Journal of Qualitative Methods
JF - International Journal of Qualitative Methods
ER -