Sociology

A few generations ago if your doctor told you that you could not have children, usually you would have to face the fact that either you were going to adopt or decide to continue life without the possibility of giving birth to your own child. However, the year 1978 proved to be a year that would change the fate of all women. The first Petri dish baby had been created. However, no scientific idea is perfect and this one would prove to be no different. In the article posted on the guardian.co.uk IVF may raise risk of diabetes, hypertension and cancer in later life we are forced to look at the darker side of IVF and unnatural forms of creating babies. A side effect of the IVF procedure is the likelihood of a low birth weight baby which is the beginning of health problems for the future. The low birth weight can cause obesity which eventually causes diabetes and certain types of cancers. Another reason mentioned in the article for the health problems that may occur later in life are due to the fact that IVF babies spend anywhere from a day to a week outside of mothers womb and in a Petri dish where they are exposed to more oxygen than they would be exposed to inside the mother. The article also goes on to talk about the potential overuse of a procedure called ICSI where the sperm is manually injected into the egg. Although this procedure was created for individuals who had trouble conceiving with the regular IVF procedure, today it is used on patients that simply do no want to continue trying conventional IVF if it has failed. Through the use of ICSI the chances of conception are higher, so are the risks. Although IVF does have its own set of risks, ICSI increases those risks with additional ones such as birth defects. The article is not trying to discourage individuals from IVF it is merely trying to inform us that we need to be on the lookout for potential health hazards.

Comparison of Principal Article to other sources
During the IVF procedure multiple embryos are placed back into the womb because not all are expected to make it. However, lately there have been more and more reportings of multiple births due to IVF. Although this is usually something that the mother does not mind, the doctors however are alarmed. In the Los Angeles Times article Multiple births, multiple risks Shari Roan talks about how the multiple pregnanciesbirths are not only a high risk to the child, but to the mother as well. The mother can experience anything from a high risk of diabetes to dangerously high blood pressure. The babies will be born prematurely and have a high risk of developmental issues, defects or even death. This highly relates to the problems illustrated in the Guardian article the low birth weight proceeds to cause health problems as the child gets old and well into their adult years. In the book Understanding Human Sexuality the author talks about a woman named Rosanna Dalla Corte who gave birth at the age of 62 due to an ovum donation that she received. She is not the only woman to be giving birth at an age that is not recommended by physicians, and she will not be the last either. There are plenty of women that keep using various fertility treatments to have babies long after their time has passed. These women are aware of the risks yet they proceed anyway, therefore causing us to question where can we draw the line and who gets to make that decision. The book Infertility A Crossroad of Faith, Medicine, and Technology by Kevin Williams Wildes gives us insight on how some people tend to draw the line Religion. Technology and medicine for the most part work well off of each other because technology is the reason medicine has come all this way, however there has to be a moral voice when choosing right from wrong and many people look to religion for that.

What Sexuality Topic does this article reference
In Infertility Crossroad of Faith, Medicine, and Technology, Kevin Wildes delves into  the topic of issues in reproductive technology, and how it went from a procedure that helped couples procreate to becoming something a bit more controversial. As weve mentioned in class, some of the basic issues were cloning and gender selection, which is what the book tries to find a balance in. The idea of IVF has always been controversial to religious figures, however with the ability to choose genetics as well as the sex of the baby, then the baby is no longer created by two people (man and a woman) yet it is created by doctors. The experimentation with reproductive technology raises eyebrows when were able to pick and choose what our baby is going to look like. There are also many forms of reproductive technology IVF, GIFT, ZIFT, and ICSI are some of the most commons ones used today. In the article IVF Technique Overused, Says Its Inventor by Maren Urner he introduces ICSI as being an alternative form of IVF for couples that are having a harder time conceiving. The article falls under the new reproductive technologies as well as the issues in reproductive technology category. As we already know IVF is when the egg and the sperm are united in a test tube, and where ICSI differs is when the sperm is directly injected into the egg to create an embryo. When this was first created as an alternative, it was not meant to take place of the original IVF procedure, it was mainly created to help the couples that have tried IVF numerous times with no success, or when there was an issue with the mans sperm rather than the womans eggs. However, what has occurred is that couples dont want to keep trying IVF if ICSI has a higher success rate, even though with a high success rate ICSI also provides a higher risk. With the idea of technology such as IVF among other, doctors created an idea, found a solution and then continued to use it repeatedly on patients that may have not needed to go to the extent that they did to conceive. Another issue that contributes to the reproductive technology is the risk factor for the woman and the baby, as exemplified in Shari Roans Multiple Births, Multiple Risks.

As weve discussed earlier the process in which an embryo is created, it is placed in a Petri dish for a couple of days before it is placed into the mothers womb. Multiple embryos are placed into the womb for a greater success rate, yet this is also where the controversy rises as well. The ideal result is for one of the embryos to survive, however that is not always the case, there have been instances where all of the embryos have survived. Another issue that we should touch base on is the assisted reproduction topic which is discussed in Understanding Human Sexuality. Assisted reproduction is something that is used when the woman has entered premenopausalmenopausal stage and therefore cannot have children anymore. What happens during this procedure is that the woman who cannot have children would receive an egg donation fertilized with her partners (or a male donors) sperm, once the embryo is created it is then place into the womans (the one wishing to have the baby) womb as a typical IVF procedure would go. In the book Understanding Human Sexuality Rosanna Dalla Corte is introduced to us who is a woman that gave birth at the age of 62 due to a egg donation.

How does this article affect you personally
This procedure (IVF) and the outcomeprogress of it in the future is extremely important for me on many different levels. I understand that the longer I wait to have children the more difficult it may be. Once I hit my thirties and go midway to late thirties, I understand that my chances of conceiving are getting smaller. Therefore since I can not predict my future in terms of when I will be ready to have children, I would like to know that there is a solution if I were to have problems conceiving. Whether the problem is with my reproductive system or my partners sperm, I would like to feel confident in the fact that the idea of never being able to have children should never cross my mind. At the same time, maybe I will not go through all these maternal issues when having my first child, but maybe my child will.

How will this current news affect future generations
If we take a look at 20 years from now, there are quite a few predictions that I have in terms of where IVF will be at that time. I believe if the amount of babies per womb is not contained then there may be serious laws prohibiting certain individuals from having a certain amount of babies. Although I do not believe that IVF will ever be outlawed simply because of the fact that it brings in a lot of money therefore no one would look forward to cutting down on it. At the same time however I believe that in 20 years if doctors continue putting several embryos into the same womb there may be a law that will be implemented restricting an X amount of babies being born. For example, once it has been confirmed by ultrasound that there are 4 or 5 babies that are living in the womb, 1 or 2 of those babies would need to be aborted before they continue growing and jeopardizing the mother as well as the other babies in the womb. Although I do believe this great discovery such as IVF is something that will remain and strive throughout the years, I believe there should be certain limitations that need to take place. If limitations are not applied then government officials implement laws against it, which brings us to the conclusion that too much of a good thing good be destructive if placed in the wrong hands.