1. NOTES 25 - In Vitro Fertilization & Genetic Screening

2. What is in vitro fertilization?
In vitro fertilization – a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm cells outside of the body

3. What is in vitro fertilization?
Egg cells are removed from the woman’s ovaries
The egg cells are placed in a fluid within a Petri dish
Sperm cells from the male are placed in the dish to fertilize the eggs
A fertilized egg (embryo) is then transferred to the woman’s uterus - usually more than one embryo is transferred at a time to increase the chances of success

4. In Vitro Fertilization

5. In Vitro Timeline

6. Embryos (Blastocyst Stage)

7. What is in vitro fertilization?
The first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in currently about 1% of US births are IVF
IVF leads to pregnancy about 35% of the time and live births about 27% of the time
One in vitro cycle costs anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000

8. What is genetic screening?
Genetic screening – looking at the DNA of an organism in order to identify genes that cause particular traits
Genetic screening is currently used to look for genes that cause hereditary diseases or for genes that increase the likelihood of developing a certain disease

9. What is genetic screening?
Currently, scientists are trying to figure out exactly what it is that each of the approximately 35,000 genes contained in human DNA actually does.
Once scientists know what traits all human genes are responsible for, they will be able to look at anybody’s DNA and predict likely physical and behavioral traits.
What are the consequences of being able to predict all this information about a person?

10. How can genetic screening be combined with in vitro fertilization?
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) – Embryos created through in vitro fertilization are genetically screened before they are implanted back into the mother
What does this mean? A few possibilities:
Carriers of genes for hereditary diseases would be able to have children without passing on their defective genes
People are able to choose the sex of their baby
People may be able to select other traits for their unborn children that they find to be desirable

11. Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis

12. The Fertility Institutes

13. Which kind of baby would you like?

14. Questions Who pays for PGD? How much will people be allowed to choose?
How much should people be allowed to choose?
Who will have access to your genetic information?
How should a person’s genetic information be used?