“I did everything humanly possible”: the process of making reproductive decisions in the context of assisted reproduction in Chile

Abstract

The options for intervention opened by assisted reproductive technology (ART) oblige its users to make decisions that drag them into a “moral odyssey.” This paper explores the decision-making of mothers and fathers in Chile who opted to use ART as a means of having a child. Methods: The results are based on a qualitative study. Thirty-two in-depth interviews with mothers and fathers who had children through ART were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results: The participants would have liked to be guided by the doctors and not be forced to make decisions. However, when treatments fail and become more complex, they are obliged to make decisions on matters they perceive as akin to science fiction. On the one hand, they feel they must do everything possible to have a child but, on the other, they believe they must establish limits to determine how far it is morally acceptable to go. To identify these limits, they ask themselves what is natural and what the divine will is. Conclusion: The need to exhaust all the possibilities to have a child means always asking oneself where to set the limits of what is morally acceptable. People view the creation of human life and ties of kinship as things that should be beyond human will. Parents want to be sure they will have children but also want to be able to leave things in “the hands of God” or “the hands of nature.”

Keywords

• assisted reproduction technologies
• reproductive decisions
• qualitative methods
• chile