Essay About Infertility And Its Medical Solutions

Science One World Report-Reproductive System-In-Vitro Fertilisation

Chloe Dhinsa (Actually Boris Wong)

Mr. Steve Basaraba

8 Science OW Essay

4.18.2014

I N F E R T I L I T Y

Have you and your partner tried and tried again to get a baby but not had any luck? Have you ever thought of this as if your right to have an offspring has been taken away from you? Have you ever thought of why you cannot get pregnant? There could be a possible solution to this problem!
This sad story happening to 11% of the US population (Infertility, 2010) is called Infertility, and it simply means that you are unable to get pregnant after attempts for a usual time period of a year
(Infertility, n.d.). There can be many variables that causes this problem, and recent medical breakthroughs have lead to the discovery of a method to help dissolve the sad pain of infertility in women. This method is called In-Vitro Fertilisation, or IVF.

There can be many causes to the inability of pregnancy, and the categories can just go on and on. The general causes could be Ovulation Failure(What Causes
Female Infertility?, n.d.), the abnormal growth of cells within the pelvis called
Endometriosis (Endometriosis, n.d.) and Malfunctioning Fallopian Tubes that would block the sperms from joining with the egg. Behavioural factors and other types of variables could also cause this type of tragedy among anxious mates. In problems like these, operating surgeries such as on the fallopian tubes could badly damage them and have bad side effects (What Causes Female
Infertility?, n.d.)

What is an IVF? How does it work? What are the pros and cons? Generally, this type of therapy bases on the manual combination of the sperm and the
FIGURE 1

egg in a lab dish. Once successful, the successfully synthesised embryo is then
(Ride to transported to the designated uterus. There is generally five steps to this
Parenthood, n.d.) operation, The first step is using ultrasound to monitor and find the appropriate healthy egg(s) for stimulation. The key to this step is to take hormone tests and retrieve multiple eggs (as much as up to 25 eggs) in case some don’t fertilise.
The second step is to collect the chosen eggs from the female using an empty needle. The third step includes the collection of sperm from the male mate of the female. After that, the delicate work begins as the egg and sperm are cultivated in the appropriate environment for fertilisation and embryonic development. This procedure is extremely delicate because it involves injecting the sperm into the egg with the help of an incubator. Finally, the embryo is then sent into the female’s uterus one to six days later, as a speculum with the two-to four cell sized embryo is inserted into the vagina. (In Vitro Fertilization: IVF, 2007)

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FIGURE 2: The resulting embryo from an IVF procedure
(In Vitro Fertilization: IVF. 2007)

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Science One World Report-Reproductive System-In-Vitro Fertilisation

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FIGURE 3: A graph specifically describing the difference between the egg hosts of an IVF treatment

(Plans for three-parent IVF babies, 2013)

It is quite obvious that IVF has increased the possibility of having a child for couples that suffer from infertility, But, that isn’t all IVF is good for. Usually the combm,ination process called conception happens within the female, but now with the help with IVF, scientists can easily observe and study the process of fertilisation (Pros and Cons of IVF, n.d.). On top of that, a new type of IVF called Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) allows us to choose which embryo is implanted into the uterus, which means IVF subjects could decide the better combination to undergo conception.
This could be a type of unnatural selection, but this method gravely increases the efficiency of IVF
(Next Generation Sequencing IVF, 2013).

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FIGURE 4: Louise Brown, The first IVF baby ever

(World's first test-tube baby, 2013)

Science One World Report-Reproductive System-In-Vitro Fertilisation

On the other hand, although critics regarding this issue it beginning to become more silent due to the thousands of successful IVF treatment cases, there are still a lot of concerns and cons to this type of treatment to consider before going for it. Firstly, it isn’t completely guaranteed that the baby would be perfectly normal and healthy, as there is a certain amount of risk that malformed infants might be created, which could count as infanticide.Yet, there has rarely been any cases like this, and the critics targeting this risk have been silenced by the odds. Currently, opponents have vanished in a large amount, and unlike the early days of IVF, this type of therapy has gained much support (Pros and Cons of IVF, n.d.). In effect, IVF has help created tens of thousands of newborn babies that never would have existed due to the infertility of their parents. In UK alone during 2010 to 2011, 17,041 were born with the help of IVF treatment. This is yet a small number, but will continue to increase as technology becomes more developed and more of the people who are suffering from infertility try the treatment therapy (Latest UK IVF figures, 2011).

Like any other new, unfamiliar and unorthodox science discovery, Critics always target the ethics of the research based on the discovery. IVF, nonetheless, is a great example of a type of technology that has impacted our morality and ethical conscience. At first, thinking of the idea of babies coming out of test tubes terrified the general public, and the whole idea was like creating a frankenstein to them.Yet, as time passed and more IVF babies have been successfully born, the lines of this morality conscience became thinner and blurrier while critics vanished one by one. Even so, there are still concerns regarding the ethics to this type of treatment. A present opponent would be the Catholic Church, while others have moved on to baffle the newly developed Stem Cell technology (Pros and Cons of IVF, n.d.).

A important factor that might have hindered the increasing success of IVF must have most likely been the cost. Such technology wasn’t created in a swift period of time, but expensive research and lots of work. In result, most people cannot afford IVF treatment. According to statistics, an average procedure takes $12,000, which isn’t a small amount of money. Furthermore,
IVF has had its reputation for creating multiple babies, therefore mates planning to have singles especially because of financial problems can be taking an extremely high risk. This remains unresolved, and has become one reason why IVF could be an inefficient way to get a single baby
(Consider Before Choosing IVF, 2011).

Another revolutionary change this type of therapy would cause to the world is the destruction (or reformation) of social structures. To be specific, many critics have pointed out that once this type of technology flourishes and becomes popular, that would mark the near end of nuclear families. This is because instead of getting married, people might just end up getting a baby in a lab and have a totally unorthodox family structure. This could be a big change to the culture of families and marriage, which would mean a giant change in the society. For all we know, marriages might disappear (Pros and Cons of IVF, n.d.).

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FIGURE 5: Potential Reformation of Society due to IVF might destroy Nuclear Families

(Promoting the Destruction of Marriage and the Nuclear Family Since 2010, 2013)

Science One World Report-Reproductive System-In-Vitro Fertilisation

Generally, although there has been success within this field of technology and that the critics are finally gone, there are gaps within this type of treatment. It could be efficient and could give people who cannot have a child a second chance, yet it could also destroy the very fabric of the modern day society. IVF treatment is a revolutionary discovery, but does it have to be good and bad at the same time? I believe this form of technology affects the world in both a lot of positive and negative ways, and what happens really depends on how society would one day adapt to having their babies be grown in a lab tube.

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FIGURE 6: (IVF Babies, n.d.)

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APA REFERENCE LIST

A Roller Coaster Ride to Parenthood [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://

rollercoasterridetoparenthood.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-am-face-of-infertility.html

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In Vitro Fertilization: IVF [Image]. (2007). Retrieved from http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/

ivf.html

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IVF Babies [Image]. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.ivfbabies.com/

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Plans for three-parent IVF babies a step closer after fertility watchdog gives the go-ahead [Image]. (2013).

Retrieved from http://healthdepots.blogspot.com/2013/03/plans-for-three-parent-ivf-babies-

step.html

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Promoting the Destruction of Marriage and the Nuclear Family Since 2010 [Image]. (2013). Retrieved

from http://www.danoah.com/2013/06/promoting-the-destruction-of-marriage-and-the-

nuclear-family-since-2010.html

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World's first test-tube baby calls for more access to IVF on NHS [Image]. (2013). Retrieved from http://

www.itv.com/news/topic/louise-brown/

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Dr. Jamie Grifo Featured in ABC News Segment on Next Generation Sequencing IVF. (2013). Retrieved

from http://www.nyufertilitycenter.org/news/2013/dr-jamie-grifo-featured-abc-news-segment-ngs-ivf

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Endometriosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/endometriosis/page2.htm

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Etolen N. (2011). Factors to Consider Before Choosing IVF. Retrieved from http://

www.ourfamilyworld.com/2011/08/18/factors-to-consider-before-choosing-ivf/

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General Article:The Pros and Cons of IVF. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/

americanexperience/features/general-article/babies-pros-and-cons/

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In Vitro Fertilization: IVF. (2007). Retrieved from http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/ivf.html

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Infertility. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/

fertile.htm

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Infertility. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/infertility.html

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IVF & Regulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://invitrofertilization.weebly.com/pros-and-cons-of-ivf.html

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Latest UK IVF figures: 2010 and 2011. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.hfea.gov.uk/ivf-

figures-2006.html#1284

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What Causes Female Infertility?. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/

websites/reprotech/New%20Ways%20of%20Making%20Babies/Causefem.htm