ATTITUDES ABOUT INFERTILITY INTERVENTIONS AMONG FERTILE AND INFERTILECOUPLES

Background. There has been marked progress in the development of infer tility interventions. This paper reports attitudes about 11 interventi ons for infertility. Methods. Face-to-face interviews were conducted w ith each member of 185 infertile and 90 presumed fertile couples in so utheastern Michigan. Results. Seven of these interventions were genera lly viewed favorably and four were generally viewed negatively, regard less of the couple's fertility status. Infertile couples viewed all in terventions, except for adoption, more favorably than did fertile coup les. Multidimensional scaling was used to cluster the interventions ac cording to similarity in endorsement. These clusters form a continuum from interventions that allow only one member of the couple to be a bi ological parent to the most noninvasive techniques. All clusters remai n rougly equidistant from adoption, in which neither member of the cou ple is a biological parent. Conclusions. Interventions that produce a child who is biologically related to only one member of the couple wer e viewed most negatively. Members of couples who were receiving fertil ity treatment made finer discriminations among infertility interventio ns than did individuals who had not received treatment.