The birth of more than 2,000 babies by extracorporeal fertilization and uterine transfer of cleaving embryos has made human embryos the tools of baby manufacturing. It has led to the opening of in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in greater numbers and seems to have encouraged more research on human embryos to improve the success rate of IVF procedures. This has resulted in the storage of excess embryos by freeze-thaw techniques and has paved the way for research on embryos as young as 14 days.
In an era of such artificial methods of reproduction, "high-tech" baby manufacturing seems to have become another flourishing industry. The institution of fetal cell therapy, the shortage of donor organs for transplantation, and the craze for pre-selection of the sex of developing fetuses may further encourage research on human embryos that may end up in eugenic manipulation, inter-species fertilization, or the growing of fetuses to the...
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