Given – 23 (Senior Capstone)
I come from a unique parentage. I am the product of my mother and a sperm donor. Unlike most families, I have only ever known half of my lineage.
I have always known of my unique backstory but not until recently have I really thought, been curious, and explored this aspect of my identity. For my Senior Capstone, I decided to explore my unique identity. I created a book that examines the process donor-conceived children and their parents go through as they navigate the new family connections made through sperm donation. My content moves between my own personal journey of discovery and a more general picture of how donor-conceived children and their parents can talk about what it means to be donor-conceived, how children deal with being donor-conceived, and the process of connecting and finding half-siblings.
View Full Book
My book is divided into two different parts: Given and Found. I chose to have two distinct sections in order to reflect the journey donor-conceived children go through while searching for their diblings (donor siblings) or donor. The Given section showcases the aspects of my lineage that I was given early in life and the documents my mother got when choosing the donor. As the book moves into the Found section it shifts colors and image treatments. In the Found section the content displays the items and people that I have found along the way in my search for my diblings (donor siblings). This includes responses from my diblings to questions I asked them about: being a sperm donor child, their families, and meeting other diblings. The last piece of content is a letter that I have written to my donor. I sent the letter to my donor through the sperm bank and I am eagerly awaiting a response.
The images shown throughout the Found section are images of my donor profile layered on top of each other. The donor profile was all I had to use in my search for diblings and the donor. It is a cherished object and is sifted through constantly in order to discover more relevant information to aid me in my search. The profile used as an image is meant to symbolize and act as a visual metaphor for the act of searching through this one document in order to find diblings the donor or yourself.
