‘Once you open that Pandora's box, you cannot close it’: a qualitative study on family relationships following insemination fraud

Insemination fraud occurs when the spermatozoa intended for insemination have been intentionally swapped for another person's without the knowledge of the intended family. In what ways is this experienced by recipient parents and their offspring? This was a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 15 participants (seven parents and eight donor-conceived individuals) affected by insemination fraud involving the same doctor in Canada. This study documents how insemination fraud is experienced by recipient parents and (their) offspring at the personal and relational levels. At the personal level, insemination fraud can induce a sense of agency loss for the recipient parents and a (temporary) sense of identity realignment for the offspring. At the relational level, it can lead to a reshuffling of genetic ties through the new genetic mapping it involves. This reshuffling can, in turn, disrupt kinship ties, leaving a deep imprint that some families struggle to overcome. Experiences differ depending on whether or not the progenitor is known, and when he is known, on whether it is another donor or the doctor himself. Given the significant challenges that insemination fraud poses to the families who experience it, it is important that this practice be subjected to the medical, legal and social scrutiny it deserves.