Wednesday, March 28, 2012

CHILD CARE 13


This Section Has Provided Only Brief Details Of Some Of The Main Causes Of Infertility. Many Of These Conditions Can Be Extremely Distressing, And People Need Information And Support To Come To Terms With Them. There Are A Number Of Books With More Information And There Are Also Several Support Groups. Information About These Is Set  Out In Notes At The End Of The Book.
               Assisted Conception Supplements The Couple’s Joint Reproductive System To Enable Them To Have A Child. It Assumes That A Least Parts Of The System Of Either Partner Is Functioning And Substitutes For That Which Is Not. This May Involve The Use Of Donor Sperm If The Problem Is The Man’s Inability To Produce Healthy Sperm. Or, If The Woman Is Unable To Carry A Child Because Her Womb Is Damaged Or Missing, It May Involve Host Surrogacy, Where Another Woman Carries The Child For Her.
               In The More Advanced Of The Reproductive Technologies, Ivf And Related Treatments, The Medical World Takes Over And Substitutes The Woman’s Natural Monthly Cycle With An Artificial One. It Means Not Just That The Process Is Completely Controlled. But Also That Is Is Subjected To The Closest Scrutiny So That Every Stage Can Be Monitored And Analysed. In These Sophisticated Forms Of Assisted Conception, Unlike The Random Natural System, It Is Known What Is Happening To Both Sperms And Eggs, And Whether And When Fertilization Takes Place.
               Although It Is Often Portrayed As A Very Invasive Form Of Treatment, Ivf And The Other More Advanced Forms Of Assisted Conception Can Substitute For Only A Small Part Of The Process Of Human Reproduction. Even If The Sperms Is Injected Right Into The Centre Of The Egg. It Still Does Not Mean That Fertilization Is Guaranteed. It Is The Egg And Sperm That Achieve The Fusion Of Their Two Nuclei With All The Genetic Material To Create A New Life. And Although Medical Science Can Place An Embryo In A Woman’s Womb, It Cannot  Determine Whether It Will Implant, Or Continue To Develop To Produce A Baby. Although The Theory Of Assisted Conception Might Look Simple, There Are Many Gaps In Medical Knowledge And Technology, And There Is No Certainty That It Will Work, At Many Crucial Stages Of The Process Science Cannot Help And Nature Must Take Its Course. So, While Recognizing The Achievements Of The Scientific World, It Is Important Also To Realize Its Limits. Test Tube Babies Are Really Test Rube Embryos. Whether These Ever Develop Any Further Depends On A Whole Array Of Different Factors, Almost All Quite Beyond The Control Of The Scientific Community, And Most Of Them Not Even Fully Understood. Says Charles Kingsland, Director Of Reproductive Medicine Unit Of The Liverpool Women’s Hospital Basically Ivf Is About Making Embryos. Something Else In Women Makes The Babies, But We Do Not Yet Know What It Is.