When Facebook plays matchmaker: Interactions within an online community dedicated to surrogacy and egg donation

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Kévin Lavoie,Isabel Côté
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12829

RESEARCH

When Facebook plays matchmaker: Interactions

within an online community dedicated to surrogacy

and egg donation

Kévin Lavoie

1

|Isabel Côté

2

1

School of Social Work and Criminology,

Laval University, Quebec, Canada

2

Department of Social Work, Université du

Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, Canada

Correspondence

Kévin Lavoie, School of Social Work and

Criminology, 1030 avenue des Sciences-

Humaines, Laval University, Québec, Canada,

G1V 0A6.

Email: kevin.lavoie@tsc.ulaval.ca

Funding information

Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval;

Réseau québécois en études féministes

(RéQEF); Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council of Canada

Abstract

Objective: This article explores the interactions and digital

practices of people involved in an online community

dedicated to surrogacy and egg donation in the province

of Québec, Canada.

Background: Sociodigital networks, with the emergence of

platforms such as Facebook groups, provide a space to

discuss assisted reproduction, seek advice, offer support,

and connect with other Internet users to negotiate and

establish a third-party reproduction agreement.

Method: This study is based on a long-term ethnographic

field within a Facebook group, and individual interviews

conducted with 22 members of this community. The

data collected were analyzed inductively according to the

principles of grounded theory.

Results: Three themes emerged from the online interac-

tions and stories of the women we met. First, the publica-

tion of intended parents’testimonies is the preferred

method of finding a surrogate or egg donor match and is

reminiscent of the language and rituals associated with

dating sites. Second, the expression of legal and financial

concerns occupies a prominent place in the group discus-

sions, given the lack of a legislative framework in this

Canadian province and the variability of interpretations of

the current legal framework. Third, the choice made by

surrogates and donors to be involved in an online commu-

nity is not random and sometimes indicates of a desire to

Author note: The MATRICES study (Maternités assistées par tierces reproductrices) has benefitted from financial support from the

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Réseau québécois en études féministes (RéQEF), and the Faculty of

Social Sciences at Université Laval. The first wave of data collection (2016–2018) obtained approval from the Université de Montréal

Arts and Sciences Research Ethics Board, while the second wave (2021) was authorized by the Université Laval Research Ethics Board.

This article is a revised and updated version of a book chapter from the editedbook Perspectives internationales sur la gestation pour

autrui: expériences des personnes concernées et contextes d’action published in 2018 by the Presses de l’Université du Québec.

Received: 31 May 2022Revised: 28 October 2022Accepted: 4 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12829

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:515–529. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 515