Storytelling is a fundamental part of human interaction; it is also deeply social and political in nature. In this article, I explore reproductive storytelling as a phenomenon of sociological consequence. I do so in the context of donor conception, which used to be managed through secrecy but where children are now perceived ‘to have the right’ to know about their genetic origins. I draw on original qualitative data with families of donor conceived children, and bringing my data into conversation with social script theory and the concept of relationality, I investigate the disjuncture between the value now placed on openness and storytelling, and the absence of an existing social script by which to do so. I show the nuanced ways in which this absence plays out on relational playing-fields, within multidimensional, intergenerational relationships. I suggest that in order to understand sociologically the significance and process of reproductive storytelling, it is vital to keep both the role of social scripts, and embedded relationality, firmly in view.

讲故事是人类互动的基础。它在本质上也具有深厚的社会和政治意义。在本文中，我探讨了生殖叙事作为一种社会学后果的现象。我是在捐赠者概念的背景下这样做的，过去通常通过保密来管理捐赠者，但是现在人们认为儿童“有权”了解其遗传起源。我从捐赠者受孕的孩子的家庭中获取原始的定性数据，然后将我的数据与社会脚本理论和关系概念进行对话，研究开放性和讲故事的价值与现有社会缺乏之间的脱节。这样做的脚本。我展示了这种缺失在多维世代关系中在关系游戏场上发挥作用的细微差别。