The New Kinship

"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 "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, Cahn's 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 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