Since Louise Brown, the first baby conceived outside a human body, was born in England in 1978, techniques for helping infertile couples conceive have mushroomed. It is now possible to have a baby with, say, five parents—the provider of donor egg, the provider of donor sperm, the surrogate mother who undergoes pregnancy, and the two contractual parents. Two of the following methods remain experimental.
Fertility drugs: These drugs stimulate the ripening and release of eggs from the ovary, making conception through intercourse more likely.
Intrauterine insemination: Sperm, either from a partner or a donor, is injected through a catheter into the uterus during ovulation, the period when an egg is released into the fallopian tube.
In vitro fertilization (ivf): Eggs are extracted from the ovaries and mixed with sperm in a petri dish. Once fertilization has occurred, the eggs are incubated for 2 to 3 days. Then the healthiest embryos ...
