Infertility and Preferences for Adoption

Rosalind B. King, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH
Carolyn A. Kapinus, Ball State University

Research shows that subfecundity/sterility is an important determinant of an individual's preference for adoption; the cumulation of this individual desire across an increasingly subfecund population implies a rising demand for adoption. At the same time, infants available for adoption have declined. As well, advances in assisted reproductive technologies have made a variety of medical treatments more available and reliable, and insurance coverage has made them more affordable. Public policy does offer some attempt to encourage preferences toward adoption through a tax credit, but other barriers to adoption are perceived as formidable. To date, no study has examined who is willing to adopt hard-to-place children, who expresses only "selective" preferences, and who pursues medical treatment only. Preliminary analyzes using the 1995 NSFG show a positive association between infertility treatment and preferences for an infant rather than an older child and a child without disabilities rather than a child with mild/severe disabilities.