Morawski, J. G. (1998). Imaginings of parenthood: Artificial insemination, experts, gender relations, and paternity. In J. de Rivera & T. R. Sarbin (Eds.), Memory, trauma, dissociation, and hypnosis series. Believed-in imaginings: The narrative construction of reality (pp. 229-246). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10303-013
Proposes that artificial insemination by donor sperm (AID) has enabled infertile husbands whose wives underwent AID to have believed-in imaginings of fatherhood. The author begins by providing a historical review of practices associated with artificial insemination to provide evidence of 2 underappreciated features of believed-in imaginings. First, the subject of AID illustrates how and individuals can and do occupy places between imaged and publicly consensual beliefs, an in-between zone of action that needs to be further explored. Second, the case of AID indicates that gender can be a crucial component of believed-in imaginings. The imaginal role of biological father that was available to some AID fathers undoubtedly was facilitated by these 2 conditions. But it was bolstered by gender, specifically by the social fact that paternity is chosen (or decreed) and is not a simple natural given.
The author proceeds to describe the medical practices surrounding AID and especially the conditions that have enabled men's believed-in imaginings about paternity. In the conclusion discussion returns to consider the status of scientific authority, the ambiguous zone between belief and the imaginary, and the implications of gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)