Uncertainty and reproductive responsibility: Men and assisted reproduction in Chile

Since the birth of the first baby conceived as the result of in vitro fertilization in 1978, new reproductive technologies have diversified and globalized. However, as shown by studies in societies as different as Israel, Egypt, Ecuador and China, the use of these technologies is reconfigured according to each local context. Healthcare professionals and potential patients only accept multiple options made available by assisted reproduction techniques when these are seen as reasonable within the context of social relations and cultural norms existing in each society.

In Chile, having children is considered to be the ‘natural’ way of things for every person and couple. Becoming a parent is perceived as something essential to personal fulfillment. While birth control methods have made people feel that they can control conception, couples facing infertility see this illusion of control fall apart and have to face reproductive uncertainty.

The arguments wielded in this paper are based on the results of a qualitative research project I conducted in Santiago, Chile. I interviewed forty-nine women and men who have chosen adoption or assisted reproduction in order to become parents. Through the analysis of the reproductive narratives of men who conceived by means of assisted reproduction in Chile, this paper aims to understand how these fathers accommodate and curtail global reproductive technologies to their local realities. The viewpoints of men undergoing infertility treatments are usually ignored in sociological and anthropological studies since these technologies operate in women bodies. When opting for assisted reproduction, these fathers have to make decisions about embryos to be implanted, cryopreservation of fertilized eggs, donation of eggs and embryos. These decisions place them in totally unknown scenarios and up against new uncertainties. They have to intervene in matters they believe to be the domain of God or Nature.