Every year many people struggle with infertility. Infertility is a chronic grief that can destroy a person’s self worth and cause immense frustration and pain. It ends many relationships and leave people feeling hopeless. But with recent technological advances, many people who suffer from infertility now have choices. Reproductive technology is giving people hope and a second chance of realizing their dreams of being parents.
Couples turn to reproductive technology for many reasons. In most cases one partner is infertile and incapable of conceiving a child naturally. Sometimes, a partner may not be infertile but has a physical condition that makes conceiving a child very difficult such as low sperm count. Other times, a couple will turn to
…show more content…
First, something that is so easy to forget is that reproductive technology is a business. It is not a free service offered to couples that need help but rather a very expensive procedure. So expensive that many couples spend their life savings on one treatment that may or may not work. To make matters worse, health insurance rarely covers the treatments. This raises an issue of class boundaries. Because it is so expensive, reproductive technology is not an option for the majority of Americans. Everyone who is middle class or below in America would not be able to afford the treatment without putting their families in financial trouble. This means that reproductive technology only offers options to those in the upper class and ignores those in lower classes who are struggling to have a …show more content…
However, if faced with infertility, I don’t believe I would ever choose to partake in reproductive technology. I have always felt that if I am fated to have a child some day I will and if I’m not then I won’t. I have never been a girl that had a strong drive to be a mother. I don’t coo over babies and pick out names for the future. I see my future focused around different goals. I think that if I was infertile and wanted a child the only path for me would be adoption. I know it would be a hard path but I think that if I can give a loving home to a child in need then I should instead of trying to create one unnaturally. I don’t think reproductive technology is selfish but I do believe it has this way of giving people so much hope that if it doesn’t work they become crushed. There needs to be a better support system and a better set of
By working with a therapist who is specifically trained in helping couples cope with infertility, you will find the support you need to work through the anxiety, depression, identity issues and relationship problems that so often accompany this challenging life circumstance. By learning vital coping skills to help you remain present and whole, you’ll be better equipped to support and nurture your emotional health throughout your fertility journey. Open to individuals and
The Progressive Era was a period of social and political reform beginning in the post Gilded Age 19th century and lasting through WWI. Industrial and urban growth of early 19th century America while representative of opportunity and future advancement simultaneously posed many difficulties for working class citizens. Prior concerns over the conditions of working class citizens were multiplied and magnified by overpopulated and impoverished urban communities. During this era many new Progressive agendas were introduced with the goal of reforming dated and unregulated policies, the most prominent of these, the birth control movement. The documents from chapter six of Constructing the American Past show that at its core, the birth control debate was a multifaceted social dispute with, religious political and racial influences.
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
The advancement and continued developments of third-party assisted reproductive medical practices has allowed many prospective parents, regardless of their marital status, age, or sexual orientation, to have a new opportunity for genetically or biologically connected children. With these developments come a number of rather complex ethical issues and ongoing discussions regarding assisted reproduction within our society today. These issues include the use of reproductive drugs, gestational services such as surrogacy as well as the rights of those seeking these drugs and services and the responsibilities of the professionals who offer and practice these services.
For many years, infertile couples have had difficulty facing the reality that they can not have children. According to Nidus Information Services Incorporated, 6.2 million women in the United States are infertile. This problem leads to many options. A few options have been used for a long period of time: the couple could adopt a child or keep trying to have a child themselves. For those couples that want to have their own children, there are new options arising. In vetro fertilization is an option that gives couples the chance to have a doctor combine the male's sperm and the woman's eggs in a petri dish and implant them into the woman's womb after the artificial conception. This may result in multiple pregnancies - more than five in some cases. This does not only occur in implantation, however. Many times the patient's doctor will ask her to consider selective reduction: aborting a few fetuses to save the ones she can. In a case of multiple pregnancy, selective reduction should be considered an option.
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is a measure used to treat infertility where both sperm and eggs are handled, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) the most common form has been used since 1981 in the United States. ART may enable individuals who were previously not able to conceive and deliver a child the ability to do so. In 2009 the Suleman Octuplets were born using the IVF technique to a single mother who also had six other children under the same methods. The Suleman Octuplets and their mother, Nadya Suleman, became a focus of interest for many based on the controversy and ethical dilemmas that surrounded their birth.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a complex series of procedures used to help those who want children but struggle with infertility. The process consists of extracting eggs from a woman and collecting a man’s sperm sample then manually combining them in a lab dish. Once the embryo(s) are created they are transferred to a woman’s uterus. IVF is commonly used in woman who cannot conceive on their own due to different reasonings. “These include but are not limited to blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, male factor infertility, woman with ovulation disorders, genetic disorders, woman who have had their fallopian tubes removed and unexplained infertility.” (American Pregnancy)
First, let’s define Infertility? Infertility is the inability to conceive from unprotected sex within a year. According to National Infertility Association(NIA), approximately 1 in 8 couples in the U.S-about 10-15% experience infertility. Infertility doesn’t discriminate against gender or race, therefore, it impacts both men and women equally, and that range from ages 15-50. In addition, any fertile individual could experience this condition, therefore, one can develop it later in life. This condition is shared by about 6 + million women in the U.S. and about 3-4.7 million men were diagnosed in with infertility, including 14% sperm/semen and 6% varicocele, which is an enlarged vein inside the male scrotum, pouch that holds the testicles of a male, therefore this blocks the blood from through the blood stream.
"Imagine the reaction there would be if organ transplantation were prohibited because it is 'unnatural' -- though that is what some people called for when transplantation was a medical novelty.” This quote from Dr. Roger Gosden describes how the general population felt in regards to the first transplant procedures that took place. Those fears have since been extinguished due to the success that transplant surgeries output. Designer babies are a similar medical miracle due to the possible wipeout of genetically inherited diseases. Designer babies are babies whose genetics have been specifically chosen in order to allow a certain gene to be absent or present. Having the choice to choose which genes are inherited allow for children to be born healthy and able to avoid mitochondrial disorders and potentially blindness and deafness. Designer babies are a controversial topic because of cost efficiency and some religious views. However, designer babies are a good idea in a world controlled by disease.
“Managing Infertility.” USNews.com. Stanford University Medical Center, 31 Mar. 2007. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. .
In Vitro Fertilization is one of the assisted reproductive technologies. Technically, It is not a technology. It is the procedure to help people who couldn’t have a child due to several reasons. The main reason why couples couldn’t produce a child is due to infertility. Infertility of humans is already common thing. Based on the research from the world health organization in 2010, 48.5 million couples couldn’t have a child due to infertility. This is a very large number and it is in need for a solution. Therefore, IVF have been the solution for those people. It is now the major treatment to treat infertility for humans. However, IVF is not only spreading positive image to the society. IVF also created some controversy with some group of people and it is regarding the
Ethics is the matter of the heart and when we discuss the heart we will all ways have conflict. Just for the simple fact that ethics in dealing with assisted reproductive technology is like a domino effect, when you answer one question another one arises. When we bring up the law in the United States about marital status and assisted reproductive technology (ART) you must be in a stable relationship, but what I found interesting is they have yet to define a couple, the relationship. Legislation does not allow discretion or the possibility that it was used, there is no grey area. Who qualifies; infertile couples, only married couples, gay couples, lesbian couples, HIV-positive couples what about the 60 year old couple that wants a baby. We are forgetting the single women who want babies also, who made up the rule that if you’re single you can not raise a child as well as a married couple. When bringing up people, we will naturally bring up autonomy.
However, sometimes nature just decides that some men and some women are not going to have children and that is perfectly alright. Furthermore, the trick to infertility is knowing that it can happen to anyone and realizing the steps that need to take place if it is happening to a couple. Simple fertility test and testing clinics are available to determine whether the couple’s bodies are equipped for
For most of people, the only way to conceive a child is through sexual intercourse between a man and a woman by contributing the egg and the sperm into a woman’s womb. In a common practice, this is the only way on how to conceive a child. However, since the growing of time, with parenthood changing all thanks to the assisted reproductive technology (ART), the usual norm of conceiving a child has changed dramatically over the past decades. Lewis Vaughn describes this process to “address the agonizing problem of infertility and the powerful desire that many people have for their children of their own, especially children with whom they have a biological link” (Vaughn 392). The methods of reproductive technology is always understood under the scientific world, nonetheless, it remains a controversial topic within people.
Test tube babies have long been stigmatized by society as the unnatural results of scientific dabbling. The words `test tube baby' have been used by school children as an insult, and many adults have seen an artificial means of giving birth as something perhaps only necessary for a lesbian woman, or a luxury item only available to the elite few. The reality is that assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been helping infertile couples have children since 1978.1 The methods of in vitro fertilization, it's variants, and the other ART procedures are ways for persons that would otherwise have no hope of conception to conceive and, in a rapidly growing percentage of cases, give birth to healthy babies. As the technology has developed, the quality and range of assistance has developed as well. At present, the means of assisted reproduction and the capabilities of these procedures has grown at a somewhat dizzying pace. However, thought to the repercussions of the applications of ART are being disregarded to some extent while the public's knowledge and the understanding of embryologists and geneticists surges forward. It is possible given consideration to things such as the morality of these techniques, the unexplored alternative uses of these procedures, and the potential impact they posses that further development is unnecessary and possibly dangerous.