MTV's Generation Cryo

[raevnn]

Anyone been watching? Thoughts?

I thought it was neat to follow their journey and that MTV did a fairly good job of portraying the various reactions/feelings/consequences of donor conception – for both the offspring, their parents, and fellow siblings.

[wmdoran]

I’ve heard it’s fairly well done. I don’t have cable or satellite TV, just an antenna. I have looked online and MTV.com has all the videos but only the most recent video will play for me and I still need to watch the first episode! Any suggestions on where to watch online?

[raevnn]

I know you can watch them online at Amazon.com Instant Video (but you’ll have to pay a little bit) – might be available through iTurnes or Google Play too. I don’t have cable or “tv” either so I just watched them on MTV.com – sorry their player isn’t working for you!

[Letendrane]

I finally got to watch it from Canada. I found it very interesting! Still, it doesn’t represent all of the situations and the point of view is focused on the reactions you have when you are 17 years old. My idea of donor conception changed a lot during my 20s, and now that I just turned 30, I face a new existencial crisis…

Also, it seemed very easy for them to find their bio-dad. People conceived earlier don’t have that much information about the donors. I was conceived in the early 80s, and there were no donor profile or anything that could help me in my search. DNA testing is almost the only option I have, and it doesn’t help that much.

Maybe the show over-simplifies the issues associated to donor conception, but at least, it draws attention to donor conception. And I think that’s a good point!

[wmdoran]

@letendrane Thanks for sharing! How were you able to watch in Canada? We don’t have cable, the series is over, and I could not find videos that would play on the internet. Just in what I have heard and seen in clips it definitely looks like the ‘ideal’ situation most people assume is normal; Donor ID, etc. Also, it doesn’t go into any of the corruption like clinics selling to other clinics, changing/losing records and ID numbers, and donors hopping clinics untracked. Like you said at least there is coverage and exposure on the practice. Over time maybe we’ll see more transparency and investigation.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by wmdoran.

[Letendrane]

I don’t know how you could watch it in the US now, but MTV Canada did put the whole serie online in february. I think it was also on tv here, but since I don’t have a TV, I don’t know.

I felt a bit jealous when I watched it. The siblings had 2 very complete profiles and a donor ID. I think it tends to show that it’s easy to find relatives when you are DC. *spoiler alert* They find the name of the donor in the 4th episode, and the whole search takes place in only a few months. This is very far from the reality of so many DC people.

Also, it feels like being Dc is not “such a big deal” for a lot of the siblings who don’t really care about finding or meeting the donor. I learned about my conception when I was 12, and all through my teenage time, I protected myself by telling me it wasn’t a big deal, although it hurt me a lot. I think it’s a normal process, but it doesnt represent the whole picture of donor conception and how it affects our lives on the long term. The whole thing about not wanting to hurt your social father and “understanding your parents” disturbed me too. And a clip where the siblings said they would definitely donate gametes if they had a chance. That is also something I thought of when I was a teen, but now, I know it was associated with the very poor image I had of myself at the time.

In general, I think it was very interesting to watch, but still not an in-depth analysis of the issue. I took it as an entertainment…

[raevnn]

Great discussion!

I agree it did make it seem like an easy journey in terms of them locating the donor. But then again it is MTV and they want a good story 🙂

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