1st Edition

LGBTQ+ Family-Making, Reproductive Ethics, and the (Re)Shaping of Family Values

By Amanda Roth Copyright 2026
276 Pages
by Routledge

276 Pages
by Routledge

This book examines the ethical issues surrounding assisted reproductive technologies and queer family-making practices. By focusing on LGBTQ+ people and experiences in relation to procreative ethics, this book challenges dominant approaches and views in philosophical bioethics. In Part 1 of this book, the author introduces the idea of queer epistemic privilege regarding issues of family and... Read more

Part 1: “Made with Love & Science”: Making Queer Families
1. Introduction: A Queer/LGBTQ+ Perspective on Donor Conception and (Bio)Ethical Debate
2. Framing the Project of Queer Reproductive Ethics: Epistemology and Value Theory

Part 2: Queer Family Values: Donor Conception, Family, and Anonymity
3. Queer Difference in Donor Conception
4. The Anonymity vs. Openness Debate from a Queer Point of View
5. An Alternative Approach: Anonymous Donation as Resistance

Part 3: Donor Conception and Queer Kinship
6. Queering Kinship: Known Donors and Philosophical Invisibility
7. Queering Kinship: Openness and Donor Siblings
8. Conclusion

Biography

Amanda Roth is a Professor at SUNY Geneseo in Philosophy and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. She has published on moral philosophy, queer issues, and reproductive ethics in Journal of Political Philosophy, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Hypatia, Journal of Social Philosophy, IJFAB, and Journal of Medical Ethics.

"This book makes a crucial and overdue contribution to debates about donor conception. In this balanced philosophical discussion focused on the lived non-ideal reality of queer parenting, Roth gives voice to the overlooked perspective of LGBTQ+ parents and families. In doing so, she draws crucial attention to the ways in which parenting is always political, and she highlights the importance of recognizing and resisting bionormativity when writing about and when making a family. As both a feminist scholar and a queer parent, I am so very grateful for her rigorous, original, and insightful discussion."

Alice MacLachlan, York University, Canada