When transgressions become transparent: limiting family forms in assisted conception

This article explores the social processes through which ideas about the family become translated into regulation and practice in assisted conception. Drawing on social problems literature, it is suggested that claims are made (by regulators, practitioners and others) about the desirability of certain family types and that forms of regulation occur when families transgress, in particularly obvious ways, the boundaries of those definitions. The apparently disparate examples of lesbian access to donor insemination and donor anonymity are brought together to illustrate the argument. It is also suggested that much formal regulation and clinical practice is directed towards making such transgressions less transparent, thus protecting the practice of assisted conception from unwelcome scrutiny.