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"Mr. Stephen Fry,
I see no reason why
You wouldn't want someday maybe
To let me have your baby..."
Molly Lewis, "An Open Letter to Stephen Fry"

In this trope, someone wants a child and picks some ("lucky") person who is not their spouse, or wedded Love Interest, to be the one to do it. While this may overlap with the Stalker with a Test Tube sometimes, many cases are much nicer about the offer and their motives are not to use the other person for their genes. The choice may be motivated by feelings of actual respect, love or affection, a Darwinist Desire, or finding a good person to raise a family with. The individual may also be a Prince, Princess, Ojou, Last of His Kind, or Living MacGuffin that needs to produce an heir for a bloodline, family or race, but their reasons may still motivated by some level of respect, love or affection for the partner chosen. As such, if the characters are both villains, then expect to see Villainous Virtues, Villainous Friendship and Even Evil Has Loved Ones.

Super-Trope of the following:note 

Expect at least one character to fit this trope in a Harem Genre story. If they're middle-aged, they may be an Old Maid or state that "My Biological Clock Is Ticking", and if homosexual, this is a case of All Lesbians Want Kids. If the baby-seeker is a non-human, expect this to overlap with "Do You Want to Copulate?". If Mate or Die is also a factor, it may overlap with Only You Can Repopulate My Race. People attempting this trope are generally hoping for a One-Night-Stand Pregnancy if this involves regular sex rather than something more exotic.

Because this is a mutually beneficial partnership, it almost always averts That Thing Is Not My Child!.

For more information, check out the Analysis page.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Miroku in Inuyasha is a male example, although it is usually Played for Laughs. Any beautiful woman he meets he immediately propositions to bear his child. Justified in that he's living with a curse that will certainly kill him sooner or later, and he needs to produce a child before that happens — especially in such harsh times as Feudal Japan. In the finale, he's cured and he settles down with Sango, who bears him three children.
  • In the first Naruto Shippuden movie, the priestess Shion knows that As Long as There Is Evil, Mouryou will one day return to threaten the world. Because of this, she will need to pass her power to, and train, the next priestess. She offers Naruto the opportunity to "help" with this. He happily makes an unbreakable vow to do so.
  • Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: After Kogarashi thwarts her master's plan to marry Yuuna and sire powerful children, Oboro decides that mating herself with Kogarashi will create even stronger children, and spends every night trying to seduce him — even crawling buck naked into his bed with him. After Kogarashi makes it clear that he is not interested in having a child with a woman besides one he loves, Oboro decides that these terms are acceptable and resolves to make Kogarashi fall in love with her. Though after a while, she falls in love with him.

    Comic Books 
  • Batgirl (2000): This is how Cassandra Cain was born in the pre-Flashpoint continuity. Her father David Cain was a member of the League of Assassins and was seeking to create the ultimate assassin using his brutal Training from Hell methods, but all his attempts ended in failure. He got it into his head that this was because none of them were his blood, so he sought out to find the perfect mother to have his child, and eventually found two potential candidates at a martial arts tournament in Detroit, a pair of twin sisters with a great amount of talent. He murdered one of the sisters in order to "free" the other from having to hold back her talent, and when the surviving sister went after him in revenge, he defeated her with the help of the League, but offered to spare her life in exchange for having his child. She accepted, and after Cassandra was born, the surviving sister gave her to Cain so she could continue her path to becoming the person she was meant to become—Lady Shiva.
  • Batman has the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul. Her greatest desire is to sire a worthy heir for her father's empire with the Caped Crusader (although she has made the offer to other men at times, such as Jason Todd). In fact, Ra's has several daughters (and a sister) that exist solely for this purpose. Usually, they happily choose their mate, although they will cross over into Stalker with a Test Tube territory if jilted as his sister did with Tim Drake, though she had further things she intended to gain from her Conceive and Kill plan.
  • Fantastic Four: Double Subverted with Alyssa Moy, a little-known Love Interest of Reed Richards. Alyssa is, like Reed, one of the smartest people on the planet, and they dated while he was in college. However, she turned down Reed's marriage proposal because she felt it was the duty of smart people like them to breed with the dumbest persons so that the next generations will be smarter. When this failed for some strange reason, she later tries to get back in Reed's pants again, but by that time, he was happily married to, and had children of his own with, Sue Storm.
  • Secret Six:
    • Catman (a.k.a. Thomas Blake) receives a call from Scandal Savage and her two wives telling him that they've decided to start a family, and after a lot of discussion are asking him to be their sperm donor. He's surprised and touched by this and readily agrees.
    • Chesire (aka Jade Nguyen) also picked him to father her (at least second) child, although in this case it's a Zig-Zagged Trope because Chesire is ultimately a self-serving Bitch in Sheep's Clothing—while she is attracted to Blake and cares about their son, both are just a means to an end to her, and unlike Scandal and her wives only made her intentions clear after the deed was already done.
  • Superman: Maxima, the Queen of Almerac, wants Superman to be this for her. She argues that, being both powerful enough to survive the pregnancy and (possibly with technological help) genetically compatible, she can give him what he otherwise cannot have: children. The fact that she is a better option than his first cousin or his incompatible (and too-fragile) love interest is blunted by the fact that she intends to raise those children as potential heirs to a despotic interstellar monarchy. She doesn't react well to his repeated refusals, with responses ranging from becoming a superhero on Earth to prove herself worthy according to what she thinks are his criteria for a mate, to open combat to force him to submit to her desires.
  • In the Pre-Flashpoint Swamp Thing, John Constantine has Swamp Thing use his body to father a child with Abby. John was a little miffed that Swampy didn't ask first before the possession, since John was going to offer to do so himself. Subsequently in his own comic book, this comes up again as John realizes the woman who's seducing him is a lesbian in a relationship.
  • Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose:
    • One issue depicts several possible futures. In one of them, Tarot marries her Love Interest Jon, has a child by him, and then lends him to her sister Raven so that she can have a child of her own.
    • There is also another issue where an attractive (and giant) Troll Queen wishes for Jon (who the trolls think is a fertility god) to impregnate all of her female troll subjects. After being force-fed a drink that kept him high as a kite the whole time, he accomplishes the task without having a clue what's going on the entire time.
  • Hela, in the Ultimate Marvel universe, toward Thor. When Thor dies and winds up in her realm, she bargains to release him from the afterlife as long as he conceives a child with her. Due to the fluid nature of time in her realm, she's already heavily pregnant only a few days later and proudly muses about how their child is a "warrior born".

    Fan Works 
  • In An Acceptable Arrangement, Sun Qiu is picked to have children with Nie Hongshan due to her youth and strength, making her likelier to carry successfully than his wife Hou Yue. Unusually, it’s Hou Yue who does the picking rather than her husband, both because bringing in a concubine was her idea in the first place and to keep her standing in the Cultivation World.
  • In the Better Bones AU, Clan Cats who want to have kits but don't have a mate can choose to have their kits "honor sired" by another cat in their Clan, usually a respected one.
  • In Beyond the Outer Gates Lies... A high school library?, Coira Sitri (who is the aunt/stepmother of Sona Sitri and Serafall Leviathan) asks the girls' boyfriend, Harry Dresden, if he would be interested in the role (no need for sex, as she is uninterested in that and knows Harry wouldn't want to, either), since it would potentially lead to their kids being very magically powerful and it would also be a way to metaphorically flip off the traditionalist devils.
  • Handmaid: This is how the handmaid privilege works. If a Queen could no longer bear children for their King and the King is in need of a son, then either one of the royal couple could select a woman of noble birth (usually one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting) to bear children in her instead. The woman would then have five years to produce a son, with an extra two years added if their first child is female. If they succeed, then they would have a permanent position at court and crowned as a 'Princess Consort'. If they failed, they were dowered and wed off to a minor nobleman and usually replaced. In this case, Anne Boleyn is chosen by Henry VIII (publicly) and Katherine of Aragon (secretly) to be the Chosen Conception Partner. Right before the seven years were up (because her first child was a girl), one of the twins she produces is a boy, the future King Edmund. She ends up producing four children total: Cecily, twins Edmund and Elizabeth, and Owen.
  • Linked in Life and Love: The big reveal. Taiyang was never actually involved with Raven or Summer, the mothers of his daughters Yang and Ruby respectively. Raven and Summer were together, and Tai volunteered to be their donor when they wanted a child; this produced Yang. However, by the time they wanted another child, scientific advancements had made Homosexual Reproduction more viable; this produced Ruby. It was only after Raven had to go on the run and Summer disappeared that Tai and Raven's brother Qrow told the girls that Tai was their father, in order to protect them.
  • In Ouroboros, Arcturus Black desperately needs an heir to his lineage and Salazar persuades him a suitable mother from a proper bloodline can be found with enough gold and the prospect to spend her life in comfort and safety. They ultimately pick Nimue Weasley, mostly because the Weasley family is famous for producing Massive Numbered Siblings from the male gender, and for a family teethering on extinction, ensuring at least two successors is quite pragmatic.
  • In My Hero Academia fanfic Total Command, Endeavor wants Izuku Midoriya, the first known Quirked male in the world, to give her a child, expecting said child to become a very powerful hero. While she initially plans to ask him for a donation, she later decides to pretty much force him to become hers (not that she plans to carry the child, since she intends to make Rei do so), not knowing that Izuku has heard all about her from her daughter Shoko and doesn't plan to give her the time of the day.
  • A Thing of Vikings, Jonna and Reidun, a married pair of Norse lesbians, realize that, they might want heirs with their sudden promotion to the heads of a new Hooligan clan. They discuss adoption, but ultimately decide that having their own biological children would be nice. They offer Stoick right of first refusal, resulting in him giving a Spit Take and a stammered "No thank you!". As he runs off, they then turn to Gobber, who watched his old friend beat a hasty retreat with amusement, and then ask him next, as they're also friends with him. Gobber, after some thought, accepts, despite being gay himself, acknowledging that this isn't romantic love at all—and he has some very personal reasons to accept.
  • Unchained opens with Uchiha Izuna abducting Senju Tobirama in order to make him her concubine. It's political as Tobirama is the younger brother to the future Senju clan Head, and Izuna also wants to add his potent chakra, sensing and tactical skills to her own lineage. Tobirama isn't exactly thrilled by the prospect to give children to his kidnapper, but muses he can stomach her pragmatical viewpoint much better than if she had acted on sheer lust.
  • In Wizards Fall, Harry, Hermione, and Luna have a slightly odd trio. They're all very emotionally attached to each other, but the only sexual pairing is Harry/Hermione (who are officially married). Luna has several children by Harry via artificial insemination, with Hermione's approval (she has children by her husband as well).

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In The Big Chill, Harold has sex with Meg so that she can become pregnant.
  • In The Big Lebowski, Maude is a variation. While she did pick The Dude to impregnate her, this is solely because he's The Slacker and unlikely to oppose her for custody or to have any impact on the child's life whatsoever. She also didn't ask for his permission first, but he had no problem with the sexual deed before finding out, and seemed fine with the arrangement once she very openly explained it. While yes, she used him for his genes (and his last name), it wasn't meant in an antagonistic way.
  • In The Draughtsman's Contract, Mrs. Talmann reveals to Mr. Neville after the fact that her reason for pursuing sexual relations with him was to get pregnant and produce an heir, her impotent husband not being of any use in that matter.
  • In the Korean Film A Frozen Flower, the King is pressured to produce an heir with his Queen, but is unable to do so (for unclear reasons). The King orders his lover, Hong Rim to have sex with his wife and produce an heir. Hong Rim and the Queen enjoy the sex so much that it evolves into a steamy affair, much to the King's anger. The movie ends with Hong Rim and the King killing one other.
  • In the Chinese film Inkstone, Dang Xiang falls in love with a young master and marries him. The newlywed couple is pressured into having a child. Dang Xiang's husband is unable to perform in bed, so he orders his servant A Gen to have sex with his wife. Dang Xiang relishes the sexual act and initiates an affair with the servant. The husband is enraged and has A Gen killed, then seals his corpse in the Inkstone bed. The husband dies at the age of thirty, Dang Xiang's affair does not yield any heir, the family declines, and Dang Xiang dies of old age and loneliness in poverty.
  • The Postman: Abby and her husband Michael approach the Postman with the request that he father a child with her, since Michael's infertile and the Postman is a stranger who won't be staying in town. He rejects the idea at first, but agrees after she enters his room and strips in front of him. At first she treats him as merely "the body father" upon conceiving, viewing the baby as her husband's (who is dead by the time she finds out). Later they fall in love though and end up raising their daughter together.
  • Played for horror in Cthulhu. The protagonist is offered a lot of money to sleep with the wife of a man who's lost his legs and testicles in an accident. He refuses because he's gay, so he's then drugged and raped as the husband and wife are members of the Cult of Dagon who especially want him to bear a child for religious reasons.
  • She Hate Me is about a man who makes a living by impregnating women, particularly for gay couples or single women who want a baby.
  • Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead: Lucinda is so moved by Jimmy beating up a client who assaulted her, after this she asks him to father her child. He agrees near the end.
  • In Your Sister's Sister, Jack is invited to his sister-in-law Iris's cabin. When he arrives, she isn't there, but her sister Hannah is. After drinking a bottle of wine, they have sex. Iris arrives the next day, and she asks Hannah about her desires to be a mother. Jack recalls it was Hannah who presented and disposed the condom from their night before. He takes it out of the trashcan and fills it with water. Water spurts out of about a dozen holes inside it. He realises she had unprotected sex with him for the purpose of conceiving.

    Literature 
  • Naturally, as a Harem anime, Anti Magic Academy The 35th Test Platoon has the protagonist, Takeru. In an early episode, his teammate Usagi reveals that she's in an Arranged Marriage to a creepy nobleman who considers Usagi his future property. When Takeru invites her to his place after she confides in him, she assumes his plan is to get her pregnant so that the engagement will be nullified. At first, she behaves as though this is tolerable because she's desperate, but then she has an Imagine Spot and gets immensely excited at the idea of bearing Takeru a child. However, it turns out that Takeru had no such designs and was bringing her over to his house so that they (and the other girls) can have a strategy meeting about how to save Usagi.
  • Books of the Raksura: The Raksura default to polyamory and raise their young communally, so it's common to choose a conception partner for non-romantic reasons, like producing children of a specific caste. Nonetheless, when Moon needs to give a challenging order to a panicking colony-mate in the middle of an emergency and offers to sire her children if she complies, it startles her out of her panic — and they follow through on it later.
  • A Brother's Price has male prostitutes whose sole job is to father children. As men are only 10% or so of the population, being a Chosen Conception Partner is not so much of a compliment to a man—men are considered handsome if they have no deformities. Only rich women can afford to fulfill a Darwinist Desire.
  • In Crest of the Stars, this is the standard reproductive process among the Abh, who do not practice marriage. Thanks to their mastery of genetic engineering, they can combine the genes of any two people, be they of the same sex or even close family members, and produce a viable child. Or they can just clone the parent and have that be the child. That said, conceiving a child naturally with one's lover is considered to be the most special and blessed form of having children, and those children are known as "Children of Love".
  • Played for Laughs a couple of times in High School D×D. Xenovia has decided her life goal is to be a mother, and tries to sleep with Issei for that reason alone. She doesn't get far, however, since her stony-faced come-ons freak Issei out more than anything. And then there's Kuroka, who basically introduces herself by asking if Issei wants to make a baby, but whether she's serious, just looking to get laid, or only saying it to fluster him is difficult to say. This becomes increasingly common as Issei grows ever more powerful, and several female characters express interest in having his child simply because they know any child of his will be very powerful.
  • Last Herald-Mage Trilogy. This happens to Vanyel. Van is not at all interested in women, but King Randale is sterile, and his life-bonded mate, Shavri, desperately wants to be a mother. Since the king must appear fertile in case he needs to make an alliance marriage, and he's close friends with both of them, Van agrees to sire a child with Shavri and acts as Honorary Uncle to the resulting daughter. He also fathers children with a few other women on request, starting a Secret Legacy that later books' protagonists turn out to be part of.
    • Also the case sometimes elsewhere in Heralds of Valdemar, especially among the Tayledras. Regardless of the sexualities and marital status of the participants, sometimes two people will pair off explicitly for procreation, use magic in the process to ensure that it 'takes' on the first go and twins are born, and each come away with one child and no more than a cordial relationship between genetic parents.
    • During the Oath books, Kethry becomes oathsisters with Tarma, the last survivor of the Clan of the Hawk. The clan can be built anew but it requires a "core" of new young members who are kin to the old clan and while Tarma's barren, thanks to their Oath Kethry's offspring count. She repeatedly offers to just start with the contributions of one-night-stands and male friends, but she wants to have a love marriage with a man who also understands and respects her closeness with Tarma, so Tarma doesn't want her settling for anything else.
  • In The Last Kashmiri Rose, protagonist Joe Sandilands has an affair with another man's wife, and ultimately realizes that this is why. Her husband was injured in the war in a way that affected his fertility, and Sandilands looked enough like him that a child's parentage wouldn't be questioned.
  • The Sixth House in The Locked Tomb has an extremely limited gene pool and a corresponding lack of choice in partners. While individual pairings aren't designated, the list of people who aren't your cousins can be as narrow as four so it's rare for the union to be romantic. They also send their most beautiful people to join the Cohort and get laid by foreigners.
  • Mermaid Moon: Baroness Thyrla, a powerful witch, has had a number of children conceived through one-night stands, born in secret, and sacrificed in infancy to keep Thyrla young. Eventually she decided that a living child might be of use to her, so she married Lot, a weak, passive man who wouldn't get in her way. Once she was pregnant with their son Peder, she killed Lot too. Few people noticed his absence.
  • Done in a very downbeat and realistic manner in one of George Pelecanos's Nick Stefanos private eye novels. Nick agrees to have sex with a lesbian buddy so that she can have a child to raise with her partner. The sex scene is depicted graphically but unerotically, with a lot of emphasis on how uncomfortable it is for both of them despite their existing relationship, to the point that Nick has difficulty performing.
  • The Postman, unlike the film adaptation, plays the situation without any romantic feelings. Michael is infertile, he and Abby want to have a child and they still ask Gordon to be body father, but that's where his role ends. He never returns to Pine View, Abby is safe for the entire story and most importantly, so is Michael. Also, unlike the film, where everyone in Pine View was impressed by "Postal Carrier from the Restored United States", Gordon comes into it as a complete stranger and is simply picked for his role for his sincerity and the fact he's one healthy man from outside the community, thus increasing the gene pool.
  • Nicole chooses Michael O'Toole, a spiritual man who also got stranded on Rama, instead of her husband Richard, to father her second child in the Rama series. She does this because, with the three of them alone and her the only female, their offspring (the only humans in space in the future) can have more genetic diversity. In the end the alien creators of Rama request that some humans be left at the Node (a space depot) for observation, while the others return to Earth, and Michael and his daughter Simone stay behind as a representative of a male and reproductive female respectively.
  • Ravensong: How Stacey and her siblings were born, as her father of record was effectively infertile, given a trial period of three years, and his twin was chosen instead:
    Grampa Thomas told a story of twin brothers, one the father of children, the other the woman's husband. Stacey choked. She isn't going to tell me that Jim is not my father. Momma's monologue softened, became reverent, telling Stacey precisely what she did not want to hear. To prevent divorce and still have children she had spent time in the city with Ned-four times, in fact. It had hurt Jim but he had to decide between no wife and no children or a wife and his twin brother's children.
  • Semiosis: Men in early generations of the space colony on Pax are often sterile; as a healthy, fertile man, Higgins is courted by over a dozen married women to father their children. He very much enjoys that part but is quietly bitter that none of them want a relationship with him; Sylvia agrees that it's inconsiderate of them.
  • Strike the Blood:
    • La Folia Rihavein wants Kojou Akatsuki as her future husband and at one point, her first reaction to seeing Kojou after his mind is transferred into a female body is to say, "This is a problem. I can't bear an heir with him like this!"
    • Later, while on the ship of another vampire lord, several beautiful maids approach him for sex. When Kojou suspects that they aren't really maids, they reveal themselves as political hostages from foreign countries and say they want to bear Akatsuki's children because as a vampire lord even more powerful than the one they serve, they'd gain incredible status and privilege.
  • Temeraire: Dragons are very choosy about their riders and tend to favour their riders' children, so this crops up at times in the Aerial Corps. Captain Roland startles the recently transferred Captain Laurence in their first meeting by offhandedly saying that she wouldn't have minded having a child with him if the timing had been better.
  • Wizard and Glass. Susan has been promised to the town mayor, ostensibly because his wife is barren but actually to ensure he's too worked up with anticipation to intervene in the conspiracy that others are planning. Rhea draws this out further by forbidding them to have sex until a certain date (ostensibly for fertility reasons), which backfires because in the meantime Susan meets and falls in love with Roland instead, before she has a chance to fulfill her side of the bargain.

    Live-Action TV 
  • When All My Children's Liza Colby decides she wants to have a baby, she asks her ex-boyfriend Jake Martin to be the father. Her ex-husband Adam, determined to get back into her life, enlists Jake's angry girlfriend Allie to swap Jake's sperm sample with his, thus committing a far-reaching Bed Trick /Rape by Proxy—indeed, when Liza finally learns the truth several years later, having conceived and given birth to the child, she calls it rape.
  • The Big Bang Theory sees troubled genius Sheldon Cooper, notoriously ascetic about matters of what he chooses to describe as coitus, hooking up with his distaff equivalent, Doctor Amy Farrah-Fowler. Both agree that a valid motivation for any putative sexual union, or preferably a test-tube conception, is to perpetuate their intellectual genes by trying for a superhuman child.
    Howard: I'm guessing that future generations will condemn us for not taking this opportunity to kill Sheldon.
    Leonard: May future generations forgive us...
  • Bones. Brennan, who had always been indifferent to children in the past, suddenly announces that she wants to be a mother. She asks Booth for sperm, since she believes he has the right genes to supply an above-average baby (along with her genius genes of course). He reluctantly acquiesces, but then just as he decides not to he collapses with a brain tumor. As he goes into surgery he tells Brennan "If I die I want you to have my 'stuff.'" It later ends up moot though because they get married and have kids the traditional way.
  • Farscape: John Crichton ends up on the receiving end of this when he travels to a Sebacean colony where the Empress-to-Be has to get married to a male who can provide her with healthy children in order to rule... and he's the only one who can do it. In this case, the princess doesn't want to force John into the relationship, but with the threat of being handed over to Scorpius on the table, he doesn't seem to have a choice. While he does end up being allowed to bow out, the princess has already been (artificially) impregnated by that point.
  • Frasier: In "Lilith Needs a Favor", the titular favor is Lilith asking Frasier to donate sperm so she can have another baby. She explains that he was her first choice so the new baby will be a full sibling to their son Frederick, who's proof that their genes are compatible, and that she has no desire to get back together. Frasier eventually talks her out of the whole idea by making her see she's just trying to fill a void left now that Freddie's a teenager and doesn't need her as much.
  • Bette and Tina attempt this in the pilot of The L Word by having sex with a random guy without telling him why. When they try to convince him not to use a condom, he puts two and two together and angrily leaves.
  • In Letterkenny during one episode of season 8 the guys begin to wonder if the Mennonite Dyck family is asking for help on the farm for the purpose of impregnating their daughters, especially when patriarch Noah asks if they have any genetic conditions. The entire thing turned out to be Innocent Innuendo, since nearly everything they say could be interpreted that way.
  • On My Name Is Earl, Joy finds out she has a half-sister named Liberty, who also happens to be her arch-nemesis since childhood. It's revealed that it's because Liberty was jealous of Joy for having a father-figure in her life, though Joy's deliberately antagonizing her didn't help any. It just so happens that Liberty is training to become a pro-wrestler, but her husband (a white Expy of Darnell) wants them to live a quiet life in their trailer park and have a baby. Meanwhile, Joy is preparing for her trial, and losing would mean being sent to Prison for life... but she reads that juries tend to be more sympathetic to pregnant women. She tries to get Darnell to get her pregnant, but he thinks (rightly) that that's a terrible reason to bring a child into the world. Earl teaches both couples about the possibility of surrogate mothering. Eventually, after they air their grievances, Joy agrees to be Liberty's surrogate. This was to explain the bump she would be sporting due to Jaime Pressly's real-life pregnancy.
  • In New Girl, Nick's cousin and his wife visit and ask for his sperm. Through a lot of debating and consideration with Schmidt's help, he decides to go along with it. They discover the IVF is too expensive so they ask Nick to have sex with her instead. The moment comes, but Nick succumbs to his anxiety and he realises he can't go through with it.
  • Outlander: Colum MacKenzie is Laird of Clan MacKenzie but suffers from a medical condition that has rendered him sterile. Colum's brother Dougal agrees to sire an heir with no one knowing the truth of the child's paternity since Dougal has sworn undying fealty to Colum. Of course, with this being the 18th century, this requires Dougal and Colum's wife, Leticia, to have sex until a successful conception is confirmed, with Colum's full knowledge and consent. This later becomes a sore point after Dougal is unable to sire any sons with his own wife, leaving him with no male heir, since he has no legal or common claim to Hamish, the son he sired with Leticia.
  • In Parks and Recreation, Ann spends months trying to find a nice man to impregnate her as a sperm donor, after years of never finding a lasting, stable romance to settle down in. She plans on having some sort of friendly, responsible contact with the father as the child grows up, since it would be a choice by both of them. She ends up choosing Chris. But this dramatic reunion between exes becomes a revived romance, so he impregnates her the traditional way!
  • In Peep Show, Mark and Sophie have sex for the first time since they were engaged. Since then, they have been married, divorced, and have endured several arguments. The condom breaks, but rather than panicking, Sophie holds her legs to her stomach, a technique that supposedly assists in sperm movement. She falls pregnant and Mark becomes a father. Although this was somewhat accidental, it could be said that this would have happened regardless.
  • Saving Hope: Dawn decides she wants to have a baby and chooses her ex-husband (and current Friend-with-Benefits) to be the father, though she insists she wouldn't ask him to co-parent. It all turns out to be a moot point when they go in for fertility testing and find out Dawn's eggs aren't viable.
  • In the Stargate SG-1 episode "A Hundred Days", Jack O'Neill is trapped offworld for three months after a meteorite strike buries the Stargate. He romances a local woman who, after the harvest festival, phrases her desire to sleep with him as, "I want you to give me a child." But since the SGC is able to rescue him the next afternoon, we never find out if they had one - though the Hand on Womb shot seems to iply that they did.
  • The X-Files: As a result of being abducted by aliens, Scully's ova were removed and she was rendered infertile. Yet, somehow at the end of season seven, she finds out she's unexpectedly pregnant. In "Per Manum," told mostly in flashbacks, a possible explanation is given: Mulder found her ova frozen in a lab and they could be viable. Scully asks Mulder to be the father, and he accepts. Subverted, however, as the last flashback reveals the IVF attempt failed.
    • Played for ultra-creepy effect in the reboot, when the writers took a hard left and decided that the Cigarette Smoking Man was William's father, having chosen Scully as his conception partner. This did not go over well with the fans, but that should have been expected.

    Music 
  • Heart had the 1990 single All I Wanna Do about a woman who wanted a baby and whose husband was impotent picking up a stranger by the side of the road in the rain and taking him to a motel. She leaves before he wakes, and only finds out when he sees his son years later (she left a vaguely hinting note the morning after but didn't really tell him). The song never really gets around to his reaction beyond surprise. Word is, the Wilson sisters were Squicked by the song, but the label made them do it.
  • In Molly Lewis's song "An Open Letter to Stephen Fry", she offers to be a surrogate for Stephen Fry, should he feel the need to pass along his genes to the next generation. She serenaded him with the song in person for an event at Harvard University; he was most bemused.

    Myths & Religion 
  • The Bible:
    • In the Book of Genesis, Sarah had been struggling with infertility for a number of years, and believed herself to be nearing the end of her reproductive lifespan. So (as per the Code of Hammurabi) she got her husband Abraham to sleep with her maidservant, Hagar. (Naturally, as per the Law of Inverse Fertility, Hagar conceives by sleeping with him once.) This causes Sarah to become jealous (not helped by the fact that Hagar seemed to lord it over her, forgetting her place and/or her relationship to Abraham). Hagar gives birth to a boy named Ishmael (though he's legally Sarah's), and Sarah has a biological son named Isaac later, driving out Ishmael and his biological mother. They leave to the desert and, with God's help, rebuild their lives elsewhere.
    • Subverted by Rebecca. She too struggled with her fertility, and it looked as though she'd have to get a concubine for Isaac. But they prayed together, and were eventually able to conceive twins.
    • Jacob's wives Leah and Rachel also give their servants (and some say half-sisters) Zilpah and Bilhah to him to bear children during infertile periods. In total, Jacob has seven children by Leah, two by Rachel, two by Zilpah, and two by Bilhah.
    • Later in the same book, Lot's daughters get their dad drunk and sleep with him. Their home had been destroyed, and their fiances had been killed. They believed themselves and Lot to be the only people left, and they felt compelled to have children for future security. They each bear a son by him.
    • Later still, a woman named Tamar marries one of Judah's sons, and he dies. As per custom of that time and place, she was to marry his brother Onan, to perpetuate her deceased husband's lineage; she did as she was supposed to, but he also passed away, which is attributed to divine punishment for using Coitus Interruptus instead of perpetuating his brother's lineage (the original incident was forgotten over time, hence "onanism" becoming a synonym for masturbation instead). Next in line is a boy named Shelah, who is conveniently not old enough for marriage just yet. Judah believes Tamar to be cursed, and doesn't want to lose his last son; he tells Tamar to move back in with her parents and wait for Shelah to grow up, at which point he'll become hers... but once Shelah comes of age, he is married to another woman. So Tamar decides to take things in her own hands by disguising herself as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah himself; he almost has her executed for engaging in illicit sex once her pregnancy begins to show, but she reveals that he is the father by using the seal, cord, and staff she took as "collateral" three months earlier. He spares her life, saying that she was more righteous than he was because she did her duty while he didn't; she gave birth to twins, who are then recognized as Judah's descendants.
  • Hindu Mythology: If a couple could not conceive a child, the husband's younger brother was permitted to beget a child on the wife. In many myths, if a king could not beget any children of his own or died without leaving any heir, a qualified ascetic would be called to beget worthy children on the queens. The most famous case was the birth of the five Pandavas- King Pandu of Hastinapura had two beautiful queens. Unfortunately, Pandu was cursed with death by sex, which prevented him from having any children. So he ordered his queens to use a Mantra to invoke various demigods, who begot five excellent sons on them.
    • Satyavati's son, Vichitravirya was married to two princesses of Kashi. However, after Vichitravirya's premature death, Satyavati summons her other son, Veda Vyasa, to beget sons on Vichitravirya's widows. However, the first widow, Ambika, was repulsed by Vyasa'a appearance and closed her eyes. Consequently, although their son, Dhritarashtra, possessed the strength of ten-thousand elephants, he was born blind. The second widow, Ambalika, turned pale upon seeing Vyasa, so their son, Pandu, was born with an unnaturally pale complexion. Satyavati ordered Ambika to approach Vyasa again, but the latter disobeyed her and sent her maid instead. Ambika's maid was not repulsed by Vyasa's appearance, so although their son, Vidura, belonged to a lower caste, he became famous for his exceptional virtue and wisdom.
    • There was a mighty king named Bali, who was not blessed with children. He requested an ascetic named Dirghatamas to beget sons on his queen, Sudeshna. Dirghatamas and Sudeshna had five sons who became kings.
    • A demon tricked King Sudasa to serve meat to his priest, Sage Vashistha. Vashistha cursed Sudasa to become a cannibalistic demon for twelve years. Under the influence of Vashistha's curse, Sudasa devoured a Brahmana, whose wife cursed him with death by sex. After Sudasa became a human once again, he requested Vashistha to beget a son on his queen, Madayanti, thus continuing the lineage.
    • When King Rathinara had no sons, he requested the sage Angirasa to beget sons on his queen. The resulting children became known as Angirasas, who were both priests and warriors.

    Video Games 
  • In Coffee Talk, Neil's mission, and the primary reason for being on Earth, is to breed with a female in order to provide the planet with a hybrid with their race's special abilities to protect from any yet-to-be-known threats. Thanks to Neil's limited understanding of Earth communication, their search is a difficult one. In Episode 2, he accomplishes his mission in his good ending by successfully going out with his online date Pearl, although he changed his objective from finding a breeding partner to simply finding love.
  • Conception 2: Children Of The Seven Stars is an RPG by Spike Chunsoft (published by Atlus for all versions in the US sans the PC version) where this features prominently. You can Classmate with the heroines to create star-children to come into dungeons with you.
  • Toward the end of Dragon Age: Origins, Morrigan offers the Grey Warden a way to avoid dying in the impending battle against the Archdemon. The catch is, one of the (male, obviously) Grey Wardens must agree to help her conceive a child, and she is pretty vague about what the consequences of this decision might be and what exactly she plans to do with the kid once it's born. The potential fathers can be the Male Warden Player Character, Alistair, or Loghain. It's played with if a male Warden pursued an actual romance with her, since at the end of the final DLC they reconnect and can end up settling down to raise him together. In Dragon Age: Inquisition we finally get to meet the kid, Kieran, and he turns out to be a pretty normal child after all minus having Urthemiel's soul if the ritual was performed and some neat powers as a result.
  • Fable II: If you marry an NPC of the same gender and want children, you can have Player 2 serve this role.
  • Dr. Strangelove is eventually revealed to have used Huey Emmerich this way in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to father her child Hal, aka Otacon. She thinks of the child as being hers and The Boss'. Huey wasn't aware of this, and this plays a role in their relationship eventually disintegrating.
  • In the expanded Warcraft universe, it is revealed this is how the Prophet Medivh was born. His mother Magna Aegwynn did not want to give her powers as Guardian to the Council's chosen successor, so decided to make her own successor. She chose Nielas Aran, the court conjuror of Stormwind to be the father due to his impressive magical ability and his royal position. She then proceeded to seduce him for one night then disappeared, returning 9 months later to dump the baby on him only to disappear again. While it's hinted she had some role in her son's life, the knowledge of how and why he was born did not have the best effects on Medivh's psyche, especially as Medivh had been possessed by Sargeras, the Fallen Titan, before he was even born.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • Demonseed Redux: Rhoda reveals she was pandering to Chico's fetishes solely to make him a father of a demonic brood and didn't care for his feelings. Dee further comments that demons generally view humans as Breeding Slaves and the "becoming king of hell" thing was a lie.
  • Among nobles in Drowtales this practice is both a common and accepted way for mothers to gain access to rare and/or desired bloodline abilities, with most cases having both parties be fully aware of what's going on and fine with it. Sil'lice and Kor'maril were one such example, with her explicitly stating that this was her intent before anything happened and then having the two part amicably once the children were born, and the children are aware of who their father is. Snadhay'rune Vel'Sharen veers into Stalker with a Test Tube territory when she not only doesn't tell Mel'arnach the target of this what her intention is and takes the genetic material necessary through trickery but also Mel is also a woman and the child was carried to term in a Uterine Replicator.
  • In Scary Go Round, when Shauna reveals that she recently met her birth father (and though it helped her get over some issues, she doesn't like him as a person much), her mom admits that, in order to get herself and her son moved to better state housing, she decided to have a second child. So she "found the cleverest man [she] could, like, a super-brain... and used him for parts". Shauna finds the phrasing gross, but is surprised to realize that she's "pretty cool with it" in general, especially when her mom boasts that Shauna is the best thing she ever did. The scene is a strangely touching moment between the mother and daughter.
  • Downplayed in Shortpacked!, where Ethan is asked to help Robin and Leslie get pregnant (by using a Super Soaker to implant Leslie's DNA in his sperm in order to impregnate Robin). Since he and Leslie are both gay and Robin is most likely bi, it removes a great deal of drama (that and Robin's alien-modified body makes the pregnancy last three weeks).

    Western Animation 
  • At the end of season 4 of Archer it's revealed that Lana is pregnant. The next season reveals that she used a sperm donor. In the last episode, the baby is born, and Lana explains to Archer that she knew he had frozen a bunch of his sperm, and that not only is he a genetically fit specimen, but she loves him despite what a mess he is. She then introduces Archer to his daughter.
  • Zuko and Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender are products of this via the way of an Arranged Marriage. The Fire Nation Royal Family line is filled to the brim with especially prodigious firebenders and their mother Ursa was the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, another prodigious bender. Their father and grandfather wanted to marry the lines to carry on their powerful bending.
  • Queen Solaria the Monster Carver from Star vs. the Forces of Evil had "neither time nor interest in taking a king". When she wanted to conceive a heir, she simply named her councilor Alphonse as her partner and later gave birth to Eclipsa.

Alternative Title(s): Impregnation Fantasy

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