Israeli Single Gay Fathers’ Choice of Lone Parenthood via Surrogacy: A Qualitative Study

This article focuses on Israeli single gay fathers’ reproductive choices. Thematic analysis of 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Israeli single gay fathers yielded two themes related to their reproductive choice. The first theme pertains to their decision to become single fathers. Three dimensions were prominent in the participants’ decision to pursue lone parenthood: the choice to fulfill parenthood as gay men; the choice to separate parenthood from couplehood; and the view of single parenthood as empowerment. The second theme pertained to the fathers’ decision to use surrogacy, which was influenced by three key factors: the desire to parent a biological child, the desire for exclusive fatherhood, and the perceived advantages of surrogacy for single fathers. The findings indicate that the fathers narrated their reproductive experiences in terms of choice and autonomy, while negotiating with dominant concepts of parenthood as a two-parent, heteronormative and biogenetic phenomenon. These men referred to the challenge they posed to some of these concepts and the social barriers they encountered as factors that facilitated their coping skills in lone parenthood, thereby enhancing their agency. These findings highlight the contextual, multidimensional and relational nature of the reproductive choices of men from minority groups like single gay fathers.