The imagined baby: the analysis of a desire

Of the many people currently infertile, at least 40% have a problem related solely to the male. Feelings about infertility are based on something deeper and more engrained in a person's character called concepts. Concepts are formed by many forces such as religion, society, the value of others and so on. 61 males, partners of infertile couples, were invited to an interview using as a means of investigation a semistructured questionnaire. We focused our attention on the meaning these men gave to an eventual baby, and on the common opinion about a childless married man either from a social or an individual point of view. According to these criteria, we found that 42% of the people interviewed thought that "people" consider the lack of children as related to male impotence with remarkable differences between the opinion of those who lived in cities and those who did not. As for the solution prospected in the case of incurable sterility, 37% would chose to remain childless, a little lower percentage would choose a sperm bank and only 20% would choose adoption. The results of this research show that among many different aspects, the image of the baby for these applicant fathers is still linked to traditional values.