The origin is inseparable from misunderstanding. Can we indeed know where we really come from? Why are we ourselves and not someone else? Why now and not at some other time? Why here and not elsewhere? It could have been another sperm, another egg, another man, another woman, another time, another city, another country.
What precedes the conception of a child? There is of course the desire to have a child, insofar as it has been there. This is perhaps the principal dimension of a possible access to the origin, rather than any other given data. Origin cannot be reduced to its biological dimensions alone. In situations of gamete donation, the claim for access to its origin cannot be reduced to data about the donors alone, as if the desire of the intended parents were of secondary importance.
The question of origin can be an endless source of misunderstanding, even more so today, following the new uses of medically assisted procreation for societal demands, for example for female couples, single women, male couples, single men, or transgender people.
