Made in Finland: Infertility doctors' representations of children

• Published in: Critical public health 2002-12, Vol.12 (4), p.291-308
• Main Author: Malin, Maili
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adopted Children; Children; Collective Representation; Finland; Genetics; Physicians; Reproductive Technologies
• ISSN: 0958-1596; 1469-3682
• DOI: 10.1080/0958159021000029504

The aim of this study was to analyse how Finnish infertility physicians talk about children by conducting semi-structured theme interviews. It is of general interest to study how children are represented in the age of assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs), a time when the medical solution to childlessness is preferred over other solutions. Infertility physicians' discourses on children are of particular interest because they are the ones who try to produce children for couples. An understanding of professional agency is crucial to the understanding of how, why and in what context women make reproductive choices. The physicians considered the first choice for infertile couples to be to have their own biological child, with the second choice being to have a child with the help of donated Finnish gametes or embryos, and the last option being to adopt a child. The socially most desirable children were considered to be genetically and culturally Finnish, white and newborn, and therefore likely to be more healthy and socially acceptable than the adopted child who represents the Other, the socially less appropriate child. The adopted child is usually of foreign cultural and family origins, non-white, older and likely to temporarily have compromised mental and physical health. In this sense some doctors felt that the use of a donated Finnish embryo in IVF is more secure in terms of a child's 'quality'. The physicians' negative talk about adopted children draws lines between us and strangers, between those outside and inside the borders of nations and families. A key value was the ability to know about and thus control the genetic and social characteristics of the child.