Attitudes about infertility interventions among fertile and infertile couples.

Abstract

There has been marked progress in the development of infertility interventions. This paper reports attitudes about 11 interventions for infertility. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with each member of 185 infertile and 90 presumed fertile couples in southeastern Michigan. Seven of these interventions were generally viewed favorably and four were generally viewed negatively, regardless of the couple's fertility status. Infertile couples viewed all interventions, except for adoption, more favorably than did fertile couples. Multidimensional scaling was used to cluster the interventions according to similarity in endorsement. These clusters form a continuum from interventions that allow only one member of the couple to be a biological parent to the most noninvasive techniques. All clusters remain roughly equidistant from adoption, in which neither member of the couple is a biological parent. Interventions that produce a child who is biologically related to only one member of the couple were viewed most negatively. Members of couples who were receiving fertility treatment made finer discriminations among infertility interventions than did individuals who had not received treatment.