NOTES - In Vitro Fertilization

1
NOTES - In Vitro Fertilization Genetic Screening
2
What is in vitro fertilization?

• In vitro fertilization a process by which egg
  cells are fertilized by sperm cells outside of
  the body

3
What is in vitro fertilization?

1. Egg cells are removed from the womans ovaries
2. The egg cells are placed in a fluid within a
   Petri dish
3. Sperm cells from the male are placed in the dish
   to fertilize the eggs
4. A fertilized egg (embryo) is then transferred to
   the womans uterus - usually more than one embryo
   is transferred at a time to increase the chances
   of success

4
In Vitro Fertilization
5
In Vitro Timeline
6
Embryos (Blastocyst Stage)
7
What is in vitro fertilization?

• The first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in
  1978 - currently about 1 of US births are IVF
• IVF leads to pregnancy about 35 of the time and
  live births about 27 of the time
• One in vitro cycle costs anywhere between 10,000
  and 20,000

8
What is genetic screening?

• Genetic screening looking at the DNA of an
  organism in order to identify genes that cause
  particular traits
• Genetic screening is currently used to look for
  genes that cause hereditary diseases or for genes
  that increase the likelihood of developing a
  certain disease

9
What is genetic screening?

• Currently, scientists are trying to figure out
  exactly what it is that each of the approximately
  35,000 genes contained in human DNA actually
  does.
• Once scientists know what traits all human genes
  are responsible for, they will be able to look at
  anybodys DNA and predict likely physical and
  behavioral traits.
• What are the consequences of being able to
  predict all this information about a person?

10
How can genetic screening be combined with in
vitro fertilization?

• Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
  Embryos created through in vitro fertilization
  are genetically screened before they are
  implanted back into the mother
• What does this mean? A few possibilities
• Carriers of genes for hereditary diseases would
  be able to have children without passing on their
  defective genes
• People are able to choose the sex of their baby
• People may be able to select other traits for
  their unborn children that they find to be
  desirable

11
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
12
The Fertility Institutes
13
Which kind of baby would you like?
14
Questions

• Who pays for PGD?
• How much will people be allowed to choose?
• How much should people be allowed to choose?
• Who will have access to your genetic information?
• How should a persons genetic information be used?