Lesbian-parented families, medically assisted procreation, and the third party

In France, recent changes in the bioethics law, which permit medically assisted procreation for lesbian couples, have highlighted the need to review what we know about these family set-ups. There is a fair amount of research within the field of human sciences on “LGBT parenting.” After a delay, and overcoming initial bias against it, the psychoanalytical approach too has produced research of a scientific nature. Here, the author proposes revisiting some of this research on lesbian-parented families. Using clinical data, he highlights how a psychoanalytical approach to the “position” of the anonymous donor helps to shed light on the sexual aspects of the fantasmatic interaction within these families. He thus shows how a primal scenario that includes the anonymous donor is constructed based on a confrontation with the differences between the sexes and mobilization of the psychic bisexuality.