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Petri Dish Babies, 25 Years Later
bl8n8r writes ""You can't buy a baby in the United States," said Caplan. "... But you can buy the sperm, you can buy the egg and you can rent the uterus." So, what I want to know is if it's cheaper than my current apartment, and if utilities are included :D" See also a good story about IVF in the Mercury News.
The NY Times also ran an article recently about the topic, that included an interesting statistic: IVF babies now account for 1% of all births in the U.S. I was genuinely surprised that it was that large a portion.
As the proud papa of IVF twins born last year, I've got to say it's an amazing process. Of course, as the male, that's easier to say. I didn't have to go through 100+ injections and get stuck with a foot-long needle to have eggs extracted, only to then get to go through pregnancy!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
.....you can rent a uterus, but it is illegal most places to rent a vagina.....so I guess that means renting the uterus grants you vagina flyover rights? otherwise how are yo ugoing to get there?
Don't waste your time, they are only offering a 9 month lease.
"So, what I want to know is if it's cheaper than my current apartment"
That depends if it's a womb with a view.
BA-DUM-CHA!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
So, what I want to know is if it's cheaper than my current apartment, and if utilities are included
Yep, the utilities are included, but the plumbing tends to leak a lot for the first couple years.
if( read(this) ) { you = programmer; }
I Think I'm A Clone Now
Isn't it strange
Feels like I'm lookin' in the mirror
What would people say
If only they knew that I was
Part of some geneticist's plan (plan-plan-plan)
Born to be a carbon copy man (man-man-man)
There in a petri dish late one night
They took a donor's body cell and fertilized a human egg and so I say
I think I'm a clone now
There's always two of me just a-hangin' around
I think I'm a clone now
'Cause every chromosome is a hand-me-down.....
I think this is going to cause trouble later on. If two people can't get pregnant on their own, there's a reason for it. It's the gene pools way of saying you're not supposed to re-produce. (aka Darwinism)
By overriding this mechanism in nature you create a child of inferior genetic make up who would no otherwise be by natural process. I think this is going to bite us in the ass in a few generations.
While I'm sure it's nice for the parents (yay! we had a baby! look at the odds we've overcome!) I think it's unfair to create a child that may have genetic defects / other problems because of their parent's own selfishness.
IVF has reduced the number of tubal surgeries by 50%.
Nova recently had a great episode about IVF and other techniques. Some of it was actually kind of scary, like the tech in a fertility clinic who explained why multiple births are so common. His take was that it's all market pressure. If women look at the statistics for a fertility clinic, they will see that some percentage of all IVFs resulted in birth. Well, if you cram 5 viable eggs back in, instead of 2, you *are* more likely to get multiples, but you're also less likely to damage your success record in terms of viable implantations....
They're all great, and I'm happy for those parents who couldn't have children otherwise.
But, has the number of couples that can't have children gone up? It always worried me. Am I just being paranoid?
Also these procedures are not cheap! That money could really change an orphan's life...
-- taking over the world, we are.
In the August issue of Wired magazine, there was quite a disgusting infoporn about how you could sell your body for $46 million. It priced egg cells at $7,000/egg and sperm at $75/donation.
It's... News for Nerds! Stuff that Matters! La-de-da-de-da-DE-da!
I have sex with women, you insensitive clod!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
There are lots of genetic problems that technology is able to overcome. Do you have vision problems? Surely you arent suggesting that folks with inferior vision shouldnt have been born in the first place, rather than having their vision corrected via glasses and / or medication? Do you suffer from asthma? Today, with the proper medication, there are asthma sufferers who are able to compete in the Olympics. Do you have diabetes (OK - not sure if this is a genetic defect, but the point still stands)? Should people with diabetes be allowed to die in order to "purify" the gene pool?
Human evolution is a different ballgame. People today are physically larger overall than their medievial ancestors because of better nutrition. They live a lot longer because of better health care and dentistry. They can live in harsh environments thanks to technological solutions like air-conditioners and winter jackets, and shoes. Why do you think the Luddite way is any better? IMHO, the good old days werent really that good - and if people do think so, its only because they tend to forget the numerous small nits from earlier days rather easily.
There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
When I was a kid, sex education was fascinating. So was masturbation. So was my Jr. Scientists microscope.
Let me put it another way, i've seen my own sperm.
However, there are many positive ways to deal with that situation. Adopting within N.America is a long and difficult process, partly because we don't have orphanages full of adoptable children. China, Russia, and some S.American countries do. If you have the means to get invitro fertalization done, then you probably have the means to do international adoption.
It may not be a popular point of view, but there is no rule out there that says everyone has to or should be able to have a baby if they want to, even though they can't naturally. I think it is unwise to go through all sorts of unnatural steps to have your own child, ignoring what Mother Nature decreed. This is just the point of view of an environmentalist, applied to humans. I think we need to be responsible in our environment.
I have nothing against people who have been born due to fertility treatments of one sort or anther, but I would be interested in studies tracking those people and seeing if they had higher rates of cancer and other health problems than the general population. And is a child born to an infertile couple more likely to be infertile themselves?
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
If a baby is conceived by IVF, they're called test tube babies.
If a baby is conceived after drunken passion, then could it be called a beer bottle baby?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
"Still more Sex.com"
"Petri Dish Babies, 25 Years Later"
For crying out loud, what's happening to slashdot??!
Oh wait...
"Laptops for warm climates"
Much better
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
In countries where this kind of technology gets used most often there is no over-population problem. Most industrialized nations have declining populations, and the world as a whole may well have a declining population quite soon.
I think it's great that some people are willing to take on the difficult task of raising other people's children, but I also think it is sad when the natural desire to raise one's own children is denigrated as stupid, selfish, or perverse.
Call me crazy, but it seems a lot better to adopt a child than go to all of this trouble. In fact it seems downright selfish that one would rather spend tons of money rather than adopt a child that already exists. It seems so selfish that I might go so far as to argue that perhaps this desire that the child must be mine mine mine might go so far as to make people bad parents due to the fact that they are so slefish thinking of thier own needs and wants and are unable to love a child just becuse it doe snot have their DNA.
Now before I'm modded as a troll. Tell me, why isn't it selfish? Why is the idea of adoption so repellant that one would rather go through such effort to create a child?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
who is currently approximately the size and shape of a very unfit hippo - with sprog #2 due anytime now - I have to say that you probably couldn't pay me enough to go through this for any reason other than the prospect of the kiddo at the end of it - and I have (so called) easy pregnancies.
Then again, I'm in the lucky position that I can earn enough money via 'normal' channels that the prospect of a few (tens of?) thousands souldn't make me likely to do it - I appreciate that the surrogacy fee is probably a make or break figure for some.