REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

TYPES OF REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

• Intrauterine insemination: the placement of a man's sperm into a woman's uterus using a long, narrow tube.
• In vitro fertilization: eggs and sperm are taken from a couple and incubated together in a laboratory to produce an embryo. The embryo is implanted into the woman's uterus, where it can result in a pregnancy.
• Third party assisted: When couples can't achieve pregnancy from infertility treatments, they may choose to use a third party method. Ex. sperm donors, egg donors, and surrogates.

FAST FACTS

• 1 in 6 couples experience difficulty in becoming pregnant.
• 20-30% of the problems occur in women.
• 30-40 percent of the problems occur in men.
• About 5 million babies have been born since IVF was introduced.
• Treatments usually occur in women ages 30-39.
• Over the years, there has been increasing success in using frozen embryos to conceive.

PROS OF FERTILITY TREATMENTS

• Couples have a chance of having their own biological child.
• Women in advanced maternal age (35 and older) have a better chance in conceiving their own children.
• Couples can experience the joys of pregnancy.

CONS OF FERTILITY TREATMENTS

• Fertility treatments are expensive. The average cost of IVF is $11,000 to $12,000 per pregnancy.
• The procedures are invasive, women and men have to give up their modesty and privacy
• Many children lose opportunities to be adopted and have to stay in orphanages.

VIEWS OF THE CHURCH

• In-vitro fertilization is "immoral"
• New life should be engineered through the love of two parents, not through a laboratory procedure
• The intimate act between a husband and wife should be to express love, not to manufacture babies. Children MAY result as an outcome of the intimate act.

CASE STUDY: OCTOMOM

• Nadya Suleman: worked for a state hospital and suffered a back injury in a riot. She claimed over $165,000 in disability and used some of the money to conceive octuplets. She was divorced and already had six children when the octuplets were conceived.

DR. MICHAEL KAMRAVA

• All 14 of Sulemans children were conceived through IVF treatments provided by Dr. Kamrava
• 12 embryos were implanted into Suleman, the medical suggestion is 2.
• Kamrava claimed that he was trying to please an insistent patient.
• His medical license was revoked citing gross negligence.

QUESTIONS

• Do you support in-vitro fertilization? Why or why not?
• If a woman has cervical cancer and is not able to conceive naturally, are in-vitro fertilization treatments acceptable?