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Isabel Paret kicked off the panel after a brief introduction by Arthur J. Farley. Much of the material she presented is taken from the book Complex Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technology: A Developmental Approach to Clinical Practice (Shapiro, Shapiro, and Paret 2001).
Assisted Reproductive Technology, hereafter referred to as ART, is used by infertile heterosexual couples, gays and lesbians, and single parents by choice, thus helping to change the cultural meaning of family. That each person has the right to experience parenthood is increasingly acknowledged in our society; that, in turn, has led to greater acceptance and respect for nontraditional families. Social acceptance or its lack can be very important in the life of children and their parents.
Forming a family through ART requires long-term effort, psychological stamina, and financial resources. It involves physical risk and emotional pain.
Paret gave a brief description of various forms of ART. It is possible for a child to have five different parental figures: the egg donor, the sperm donor, the gestastional mother, and two intentional parents.
Intentional parents face unique developmental tasks, beginning with facing the grief of infertility. Psychoanalysts can help with this process, but for many years they stressed the psychological basis of infertility. A study group in the Boston Psychoanalytic Society published fascinating material in 2002 on how analysis can help people undergoing medical treatments in order to create a pregnancy.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) begins with powerful doses of gonadotropic hormones for the mother or the ova donor-a process that can have