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Articles on Assisted reproduction technology

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A few days after successful fertilization, an embryo becomes a rapidly dividing ball of cells called a blastocyst. Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Promising assisted reproductive technologies come with ethical, legal and social challenges – a developmental biologist and a bioethicist discuss IVF, abortion and the mice with two dads

Scientists can create viable eggs from two male mice. In the wake of CRISPR controversies and restrictive abortion laws, two experts start a dialogue on ethical research in reproductive biology.
Assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization can help expand families, but regulations aren’t consistent across states. moodboard/Image Source via Getty Images

Fertility treatment use is on the rise – new legislation could increase protections for donors and families in an industry shrouded in secrecy

A pending bill in Colorado would disclose donor information to children and their parents and set limits on how many families can use a single individual’s egg or sperm.
Courtesy of Louise Hyslop & Mary Herbert, Univ. Newcastle upon Tyne

‘Maeve’s law’ would let IVF parents access technology to prevent mitochondrial disease. Here’s what the Senate is debating

Parents at risk of passing on genetic disease to their children via mutations in the mother’s mitochondrial DNA could soon use a new IVF-based treatment involving healthy donor mitochondria.
Louise Brown, who was the world’s first baby to be born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, poses with equipment used in early IVF treatments. Daniel Leal-Olivas/ Getty

The fertility industry is poorly regulated – and would-be parents can lose out on having children as a result

An unknown number of people have lost their dreams of parenthood because of storage disasters at fertility clinics. These experts note poor government oversight and the need for stronger regulation.
A computer illustration of a cross-section of a mitochondrion and its internal structure with DNA (gray), ribosomes (light green), granules (yellow) and ATP synthase particles (light blue). TUMEGGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

Disputes over when life begins may block cutting-edge reproductive technologies like mitochondrial replacement therapies

The nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett has implications for how assisted reproductive technologies, which can prevent the transmission of disease from parents to child, are regulated.
Unhelpful comments can be a source of stress for people struggling with infertility, and can mean that seeking social support can result in more, rather than less, distress. (Unsplash)

5 things not to say to someone struggling with infertility

Most people don’t intend to be hurtful or insensitive in their conversations with people experiencing infertility — they often just don’t know what to say.
What are the rules that make a man a father? Slava Potik/Unsplash

Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA test

Before the advent of genetic testing, definitions of paternity were primarily social and legal. Science has destabilized these older definitions, but it has not replaced them.

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