ABSTRACT
Involuntary infertility is never a happy condition. Involuntary infertility represents a rupture – personal, social and historical – of the flow of life for the couples concerned, their relatives and their friends. In a country such as Norway, in which a comparatively high proportion of women give birth,2 where values placed on kinned relations predominate over most social relations, and where couples tend to interact with their contemporaries as families, not to have children becomes a heavy burden for involuntary childless couples (Howell 2001). Contemporary cultural expectations hold that a woman, and increasingly a man, cannot fulfil themselves without embracing parenthood. In a certain sense they are incomplete social beings. Those who want children, but are unable to reproduce themselves biologically, therefore have to turn to alternative methods of procreation. Available options fall into two separate, but related, kinds: the various forms of new reproductive technologies (NRT), and adoption. Domestic adoption is virtually non-existent in Norway. A combination of medical provision, cultural attitudes and economic provision enable a pregnant woman to decide whether or not to have the child. Abortion on demand has been available since 1975. Single mothers are not stigmatised and they receive sufficient financial support to enable them to bring up children on their own. These factors have led to few unwanted babies being born and, hence, few Norwegian-born babies available for adoption. It is not surprising therefore that many Norwegian involuntarily infertile couples have embraced transnational adoption as the solution to their dilemma.
