Voices of donor conceived children
With all that adoption research has revealed, the reproductive technology field should be informed that secrecy & anonymity is damaging and harmful to children. Unfortunately, reproductive technology suffers from the same dilemma that the multi-billion dollar adoption industry suffers from; greed outranks ethics. Here is a quick film clip of donor conceived children expressing their curiosity about their donors.
Jane – Genetic Sexual Attraction
Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) can be a controversial and uncomfortable subject to broach, but we are exploring the topic today. Today Jane shares her personal experience of a GSA relationship with a sibling and Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW brings her professional expertise to the topic. Some estimates are up to half of all adoptees in reunion feel some sort of attraction to a genetic family member, which Leslie believes is likely a search for attachment. We recommend where to go for support and we try to examine GSA in a safe way, without blame or shame.
Season 4, Episode 5: Jane – Genetic Sexual Attraction
Legacy of Loss
Leslie Mackinnon’s grief over relinquishing her sons for adoption inspires her passion to change the process. See the article
Interview with Katie Couric
Dan Rather Reports
Interview with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America
“I am privileged to be one of the women interviewed for the book and it means a great deal to me, more than I can ever adequately put into words, to finally have our voices heard.”
A clip of Robin Roberts interviewing Ann Fessler (the author of The Girls Who Went Away) and Leslie Mackinnon, whose story was featured. The book reveals the hidden history of 1 1/2 million young women who got pregnant while unmarried in the years before Roe v. Wade. Back then, it was standard to banish them to institutions for “unwed mothers,” where they gave birth to babies they were often forbidden to see and forced to give up for adoption. Decades later, the women shared the costs of their silence and forced exile.
FEATURED IN
The Girls Who Went Away
By Ann Fessler
The Girls Who Went Away was featured in the NY Times Book Review, Newsweek and the Washington Post. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was picked by Ms. Magazine as one of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time. Fessler’s oral history of women who lost their children to adoption in the 1950s and ’60s contains the profoundly moving voices of women whose stories had not been heard before.
SPEAKER AT HARVARD
Giving Birth Without Parenting: A Lasting Sorrow
By Leslie P. Mackinnon
While Leslie addressed the audience at Harvard, her then-37-year-old son watched her from the front row, as she talked about the years after his birth, when she wasn’t sure she would ever see him again in this lifetime.
Leslie attended UGA following the relinquishment of her sons. When she returned decades later to deliver a lecture about child development, she was able to share her experience as a cautionary tale for the students on the lifelong impact of early reproductive choices, which include becoming an egg or sperm donor. It was a powerful, full-circle moment.
FEATURED IN THE AJC
Talking About Birds & Bees & Technologies
By Helena Oliviero
Leslie has challenged the infertility industry to educate their consumers on the importance of openness and truth. Reproductive Endocrinologists speak “as if” this brand new way of making families exists in a vacuum, with no way to gauge its repercussions. The truth is, third-party reproduction shares the same psychological issues as adoption. Many D.I. (donor-inseminated) youth and adults experience grief and curiosity about their origins, and want accurate medical histories and some type of connection to biological relatives. Adoption practices have changed because adopted adults have spoken up about the dire — and unnecessary — consequences of secrecy and anonymity. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we need only proceed with openness and transparency.
