The ‘Selfish Element’: How Sperm and Egg Donors Construct Plausibly Moral Accounts of the Decision to Donate

Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated how talk of ‘good’ motives enables people to maintain the presentation a moral self in context stigmatised behaviours. Far fewer examined why sometimes describe acting for ‘wrong reasons’ or choose qualify, reject, assumptions that they are motivated by desire ‘do good’. In this article, I analyse one such situation: sperm donors who being partially ‘selfish’ procreate, motive which these same men frame as morally questionable. argue accounts explicable if we consider (gendered) interactional and cultural contexts produced, particularly way interactive shape desirability achievability plausibility authenticity. suggest analysis similar social phenomena can support sociologists better understanding complex ways practices woven into interactions.