Issues: Infertility |
Glossary |
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Involves
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Helps
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Issues / Problems
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| Artificial Insemination | Placing sperm at the neck of the cervix artificially.
The sperm is collected by masturbation. Simple. Painless. |
AIH
- when the man can't ejaculate - when the man can't have sex - when the woman's cervix is hostile - if the man has undergone medical treatment that left him sterile the couple may use sperm extracted before the operation |
Some believe sex is for uniting a couple and procreating. AIH separates the uniting aspect of sex from the procreation part of sex. |
| By donor - the donor is anonymous. The child may be illegitimate by law. |
AID
- when the man is infertile - if the man carries a faulty gene that could be passed on to a potential child |
Some are concerned about introducing a third party into an exclusive relationship.
The 'father' may feel a failure. The child is not biologically the husband's. |
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| In-vitro Fertilisation 'Test tube babies' The first test tube baby was born in 1978 |
Human eggs are extracted from the ovary and mixed with semen in a Petri dish. When at the 8-celled stage, some embryos are put back in the uterus. Other embryos are frozen. | - if the woman's tubes are blocked.
Egg Donation - if a woman does not produce eggs |
It separates the uniting aspect of sex from the procreation part of sex. Problem of spare embryos - is it right to freeze them / kill them off / use them for experimenting. Problem of donors. |
| Surrogacy | Fertilised embryos of one couple are put in the uterus of another woman.
Sometimes there might be donations of egg and / or sperm. |
- if the woman has no uterus, or a damaged uterus | Payment of money for a child?
What if the surrogate mother doesn't want to give up the child? The child is legally the birth mother's in this country - no matter whose it is genetically. |
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Go to a printable versionof this table |
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What do you think - should a Christian have I.V.F. treatment? |
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Facing the Issue: Becky's Story |
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Go back to 'Issues - Infertility' |