When Eric Schwartzman went in for a medical exam six months before his wedding, he didn't expect to hear he was infertile. After the examination, the doctor suggested Schwartzman have a sperm-count test. Schwartzman thought nothing of it. Then the results came in. He was diagnosed with azoospermia, a condition in which the man produces virtually no sperm. "Don't plan on having kids naturally," his doctor told him. "You can just adopt."

Schwartzman and his wife were devastated. He offered to call off the wedding, but she refused. Instead, they went to a fertility clinic, where Schwartzman underwent two testicular biopsies to retrieve sperm for in vitro fertilization (IVF). As a backup, his doctor suggested the couple select a sperm donor, and they agreed without really taking the possibility seriously. But when two IVF cycles failed, he and his wife reconsidered.

Schwartzman is now the father of two "half-adopted" children, as he calls them, both conceived through donor insemination. Most of the time, he says, he focuses on day-to-day life--"getting them potty trained" and the like. But he sometimes wonders what effect their unusual beginnings will have on them.

Labels: repro tech, shameless self-promotion

Reproductive technology, a boon for countless people, has also created a strange kind of tyranny. By extending the deadline and loosening the criteria for getting pregnant, by granting no exemptions from the unremitting pressure to procreate (Menopausal? No problem! Lesbian? No excuse!), the ever-widening window of reproductive opportunity contributes to the notion that not only should parenthood be available to every individual or couple, it's a good idea for every individual or couple too. One needn't pay a midnight visit to the diaper aisle of Walgreen's to suspect that that might not actually be the case.

Labels: angry woman beat, repro tech