Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

Forms of ART Artificial Insemination In vitro Fertilization (IVF) Oocyte Donation Surrogacy Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer a.k.a Cloning

Artificial Insemination Can involve the husband/partner or a sperm donor the sperm is inserted into the vagina or uterus of the woman First carried out by a US physician in 1884

In vitro Fertilization (IVF) Allowing sperm and egg to join in a laboratory dish (in vitro) Once the sperm and egg have joined outside the human body the resulting embryo is transferred by way of the vagina to the woman’s uterus First practiced in the UK in 1978 and in the US in 1981

Oocyte Donation Involves obtaining eggs from a donor Usually for a woman who cannot produce her own eggs Then fertilizing them in vitro with sperm Introduced in the US in 1984

Surrogacy A woman agrees to carry a pregnancy to full term and then give the child to the couple or single person who she made the agreement with The “surrogate mother” may be artificially inseminated with sperm provided by the man who is the intended father, in which case the child is half her’s genetically Or she may have an embryo developed by means of IVF transferred to her from another woman, a.k.a. “rent-a-womb”

Intracytoplasmic sperm Injection (ICSI) Direct injection of a single sperm into an egg used when a man has very few healthy motile sperm First used in the US in 1993

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD/DPI) This technique allows, after the fertilization of the oocyte by a single spermatozoon (ICSI) and before in utero implantation, the diagnosis of potential genetic abnormalities in the obtained embryos. Only the embryos that are not carriers of the genetic disease under investigation or which have the genetic markers the parents desire will be chosen for in utero embryo replacement. Technique is used in the creation of “savior siblings”

Reproductive Cloning a.k.a Somatic cell nuclear transfer This is a reproductive technique in theory but not yet in practice! Involves inserting the nucleus of a somatic cell into an enucleated egg, which is then stimulated to develop into an embryo and transferred to a woman’s uterus

Embryo Adoption In 1997 Snowflakes Embryo Adoption was founded by Nightlight Christian Adoptions When a couple decides they do not want the left over embryos from their fertility treatments they can give them to Project Snowflakes Project Snowflakes then adopts the embryos out to couples or adoptive mothers willing to carry the embryo to full term 134 children have been born as a result

The First Test Tube Baby Louise Brown The First Test Tube Baby Born July 25th, 1978

The Case of Baby Louise John and Lesley Brown, a working class couple from Manchester, England tried for nine years to have a baby They sought help from obstetrician Dr. Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Evans in Oldham, England One night back in 1965 Dr. Evans experimented with his own semen and an egg. In the morning he found that he had created an embryo

The Case of Baby Louise The Browns went ahead with ivf Louise Joy Brown was born into a media frenzy the scientific community criticized the doctors for not publishing their method in a scientific journal but talking to the National Enquirer instead The media called it the realization of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

Ethical issues in ART

In Vitro Fertilization Religious concerns What is the status of the human embryo? What is the risk of birth defects? Multiple births

Oocyte Transfer Older parents Parent identity crisis Eugenics (selecting for or against certain traits) What is fair compensation?

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD/DPI) Is is right to create a life to save another life (i.e. Savior Siblings) Can it be used to make designer babies? Can beggars be choosers?

Cloning How likely is it to become widely practiced? How is it different from twinning? How different is the result from natural reproduction?

Twins - Natural Clones?

Not exactly twins...but a natural form of cloning

Surrogacy Who is the mother? What is the definition of motherhood? Is it ethical to outsource wombs?

Questions? Comments? Concerns?