The New Kinship: Constructing Donor-Conceived Families (Families, Law, and Society, 14) - Hardcover

Naomi Cahn is John Theodore Fey Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School. Her previous books include Red Families v. Blue Families, Test Tube Families (NYU Press 2009), Families By Law: An Adoption Reader (NYU Press 2004), and Confinements: Fertility and Infertility in Contemporary Culture.

"The book provides a good source for readers who are interested in socio-legal aspects of donor conception, and in particular debates around the donor-conceived child's 'right-to-know'. It also provides good insights about newly emerging donor kin networks." (New Genetics and Society)

"The New Kinship is fascinating, provocative, insightful, and important. I should add that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it." (Adam Pertman,Executive Director of the Donaldson Adoption Institute and author of Adoption Nation)

"Donor-conceived families are transforming the way we think about family life, and Cahn's The New Kinship carefully explores questions--especially legal questions--unforeseen by the medical practitioners who first advanced in vitro fertilization (IVF) and later the standard practice to freeze donor sperm, extract donor eggs, and implant embryos into genetically unrelated women....Cahn offers compelling reasons why regulatory oversight at the federal and international levels is inadequate and how it could be improved. Her eye-popping evidence on the limited genetic testing conducted on donor gametes and on how reducing the number of children born from a single donor would minimize disease transmission are just a few examples she provides." (Rosanna Hertz Gender & Society)

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"The New Kinship makes a major contribution to the literature of reproductive technologies by telling stories from the kids perspectives to argue for changes in legal regulation.It offers us new language to describe these new family relationships, and provocatively calls call for increased state regulation of the donor world.Both radical and traditional, Cahns book is a rich mix of scholarly research and real life stories of donor-conceived parents, kids, and half-siblings.A comprehensive and empathetic view of too-often overlooked donor-conceived families.At once accessible and scholarly, it makes a clear call for increased federal regulation of donor-conceived families.

" (Martha Ertman,Carole & Hanan Sibel Research Professor of Law, University of Maryland)

"The New Kinshipis an excellent introductory text for anyone interested in the intersection of gamete donation, family, and the law." (Ethics & Medicine)

"The New Kinship turns the traditional notion of 'family' on its head. Naomi Cahn reinforces the importance of family while challenging a normatively entrenched, but inaccurate account of what makes up the modern family. As she wisely puts forth, families are more than biological connections. Rather, the heterosexual, two-parent model no longer accurately captures or defines parentage. Equally, kinship is far more complex than blood relationships; donor-conceived family communities remind us how much the law is far behind in providing an accurate linguistic, theoretical, and doctrinal account of new kinship models. Cahn brilliantly begins to fill this gap. The New Kinship: Donor Conceived Family Communities is a timely tour de force about the 'donor world' and the people who inhabit it." (Michele Bratcher Goodwin,Everett Fraser Professor of Law & Professor of Medicine and Public Health, University of Minnesota)