ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the physiological causes of infertility and views involuntary childlessness as a social status resulting in deviation from parenthood norms. It explores how gender informs views about infertility and how gender differentially shapes the experiences of infertility for men and women. Most discussion of reproductive technology focuses on the couple and access to the programmes is usually restricted to married, heterosexual couples. A range of norms surround women’s reproductive capacities, resulting in certain social roles being widely viewed as normal and any variation deviant and stigmatized. The chapter examines meaning of reproductive autonomy or choice in the context of conceptive technologies, especially in vitro fertilization (IVF). Biomedical interventions aimed at alleviating infertility by producing a pregnancy have expanded rapidly since the birth of the first baby conceived through IVF in 1978. Carol Smart points out that men’s deviance is more likely to be criminalized, whereas women’s non-conformity is more likely to be interpreted from a medical model.
