| Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) is being used | | | | technology that has out distanced the ability of the |
| when traditional infertility therapies are unsuccessful, | | | | learned professions and society at large to keep |
| especially in cases of endometriosis, low sperm | | | | pace with its consequences.The hullabaloo over |
| counts and unexplained infertility. The first pregnancy | | | | "surrogate" motherhood triggered by the "Baby M" |
| using the GIFT technique occurred in 1985 and in the | | | | case continues to resonate in courts of law and |
| year that followed, patients having the procedure | | | | legislatures. Fertility clinics are making money by |
| increased from forty seven to four hundred | | | | making it possible for couples to make babies not |
| nineteen.According to the IVF Registry, the overall | | | | only by providing sperm banks, but since 1990, by |
| clinical pregnancy rate in 1987 for IVF was sixteen | | | | providing donor eggs. Donors of both sexes are |
| percent, while the rate for GIFT was twenty-five | | | | forcing medical ethicists as well sociologists and jurists |
| percent. A recent report by the American Fertility | | | | to confront the question not only of who is the |
| Society puts the success rate at 26.6 percent. A | | | | biological parent and what are the rights of that |
| variation of the GIFT technique, known as ZIFT (the | | | | parent, but also of how a "family" and identity itself |
| Z stands for zygote) transfers the newly fertilized | | | | are to be defined. The normal life cycle of women |
| egg, or zygote, into the fallopian tube by | | | | has become a matter of government involvement |
| laparoscopy, usually within twenty-four hours after | | | | following the successful pregnancies of women in |
| fertilization has taken place in the laboratory.Although | | | | their late fifties. An international furor yet to be |
| there have been major advances in solving some of | | | | resolved was triggered by the announcement of a |
| the problems of infertility, much more is yet to be | | | | researcher in Scotland that it would soon be feasible |
| learned. There are still couples whose infertility is | | | | for infertile women to be implanted with the ovaries |
| unexplained and there are couples with known causes | | | | taken from aborted fetuses.When scientists effect |
| of infertility that cannot be cured. In addition, | | | | major changes, they are rarely expected to take |
| advances in technology have given rise to problems | | | | responsibility for the unforeseen results of their work. |
| that concern hospitals and neonatologists who | | | | Americans have a difficult time confronting the fact |
| specialize in premature babies. Multiple births resulting | | | | that "progress" always has its price, that everything |
| from IVF and GIFT are common and when twins, | | | | has the defects of its virtues. For the infertile couples |
| triplets and even quadruplets arrive early, the costs | | | | who achieve parenthood because of unanticipated |
| for assuring their well-being can be extremely | | | | advances in the technology of reproduction, these |
| high.Approximately twenty years ago, the birth of | | | | advances have been a blessing. Whether they have |
| the first "test tube" baby was hailed as a miracle. | | | | been an unmixed blessing for society at large will be |
| Since that time, in vitro fertilization has become an | | | | decided in the legislative bodies and law courts, which |
| accepted means of treatment throughout the | | | | reflect the changing attitudes of the general |
| Western world. In retrospect, it turns out that this | | | | population on how families are created. |
| procedure ushered in a new era of reproductive | | | | |