Since its medicalization, resolutions around infertility have shifted. Adoption, once considered the natural solution to infertility, is now deemed secondary to medical treatments. Beyond noting this preferential order, little is known about the relationship between medicalized infertility and adoption. To explore this relationship, this study examines why adoption is seen as second best and how the medical institution contributes to that image. Through interviews with 88 infertile individuals in the U.S., the findings not only reveal the ideological foundations of adoption and medicine, but also the power of such foundations. Individuals draw on notions of biological privilege and pronatalism to inform their understandings of adoption and medicalized infertility—adoption remains a stigmatized process for failing to adhere to such prescriptions, yet medicine is revered for maintaining them. In exploring how individuals and the medical institution use these ideas to inform their decision-making and practice, the findings ultimately demonstrate the falsehood of those images.

中文翻译：

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“首先尝试拥有自己的；这就是你所做的”：收养与医学不孕症之间的关系

自从医学化以来，围绕不孕症的解决方案已经发生了变化。领养，曾经被认为是不孕症的自然解决方案，现在被认为是次要的医疗。除了注意到这种优先顺序之外，人们对医学化不孕症与收养之间的关系知之甚少。为了探索这种关系，本研究调查了为什么收养被视为次佳以及医疗机构如何为该形象做出贡献。通过对美国 88 位不孕不育者的采访，调查结果不仅揭示了收养和医学的意识形态基础，还揭示了这些基础的力量。个人利用生物学特权和生育主义的概念来了解他们对收养和医学化不孕不育的理解——收养仍然是一个因未能遵守这些处方而被污名化的过程，然而，医学因维持它们而受到尊敬。在探索个人和医疗机构如何使用这些想法为他们的决策和实践提供信息时，研究结果最终证明了这些图像的虚假性。