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.

Comments

Becoming more common every day

[TopShelf]

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!

Re:Becoming more common every day

[woodsnick]

Agreed, After me neither of my parents were able to have kids but wanted to have more of their own. My sister (now 16) was a GIFT (Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer) baby and my brother (now 11) was In Vitro and actually frozen for a year before he was implanted. Both are now doing great. I know that there are many children out there waiting to be adopted which is another great option for parents that want children, but I do believe that modern infertility are amazing and worth looking into if you really want to have a child of your own and are unable to. Be warned however, the process is not cheap.

interesting....

[inteller]

.....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?

This space for rent

[HopeUnknown]

"...you can rent the uterus."

Don't waste your time, they are only offering a 9 month lease.

Well...

[da3dAlus]

"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!

Interesting IVF facts

[Alton_Brown]

More interesting facts...

• The size of a human egg is approximately 0.15 mm in diameter. That is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
• The size of a human sperm is approximately 0.004 mm in diameter.
• Infertility affects 6.1 million American women and their partners, about 10% of the reproductive age population.
• Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system that affects the male or female with almost equal frequency.
• Fewer than 5% of infertile couples in treatment actually use IVF. IVF is usually the treatment of choice for a woman with blocked, severely damaged, or absent fallopian tubes. IVF is also used to circumvent infertility caused by endometriosis or a male factor. Many programs also use IVF to treat couples with unexplained infertility of long duration who have failed with other infertility treatments.
• IVF is a method of assisted reproduction in which the man's sperm and the woman's egg (oocyte) are combined in a laboratory dish, where fertilization occurs. The resulting embryo is then transferred to the uterus to develop naturally. Usually, two to four embryos are transferred with each cycle.
• According to the latest statistics, the success rate for IVF is 29.4% deliveries per egg retrieval. This success rate is similar to the 20% chance that a healthy, reproductively normal couple has of achieving a pregnancy that results in a live born baby in any given month.
• Women under 35, without male factor, who try IVF, have on average a 25% chance of conceiving and having a baby. Some clinics achieve even better results.
• Success with IVF increases with the number of cycles attempted up to four cycles.
• Of the 82% of pregnancies as a result of IVF that result in a live birth, about 63% are singletons, 32% are twins, and 5% are triplets or more.
• Studies suggest that ICSI and in vitro fertilization are safe technologies. A recent study covered nearly 1,000 children conceived through these methods in five European countries and found that the children, measured from birth to age 5, were as healthy as children conceived naturally. While other studies have found a slightly increased risk of genetic defects and gene-imprinting disorders in children conceived through ART, more research needs to be done to determine the risks and the processes by which this might occur.
• IVF was successfully used for the first time in the United States in 1981. Since then, more than 114,000 babies in the US have been born as a result of the technique.
• One cycle of IVF costs an average of $12,400.
  IVF has reduced the number of tubal surgeries by 50%.

Nova's coverage

[ajs]

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....

Re:Higher rate of birth defects

[Kenneth Stephen]

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.

Conception terminology

[dr_dank]

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?