Attitudes of infertile couples to sperm donation: the role of religious beliefs

Half of infertile couples referring to health centers are infertile males. The aim of present study was considering the attitudes of infertile couples to sperm donation. This study is a qualitative content analysis research which concentrates on the opinions of the people who discuss about sperm donation in a cyberspace social network. In this field the opinions of jurists and scientific issues based on priorities of each available option for the treatment of infertility have been compared and prioritized. In order to analyze these attitudes¡ and according to the religion and its impact on the approach and decision making¡ particularly in the treatment of infertility as the completion of married life¡ the shadow of religion in decision-making is considered. Finally¡ three main themes and four sub-themes were extracted. Main themes are: the most frequent methods i.e. sperm donation¡ embryo donation and adoption. Due to the more negative view of sperm donation comparing to embryo donation it seems that the existence of sperm donation just increases the number of treatment options¡ but adds many restrictions in the whole Islamic community.