Reproduction without sex: social and ethical implications.

The development of the technique of in vitro fertilization (IVF) helped to make it possible for a couple to reproduce, to have a child, without normal sexual intercourse. Indeed this is the main point of the procedure: for there are many couples, about one in seven, who encounter difficulties in having children through normal sexual intercourse. For them, IVF provides an alternative way of creating an embryo from their gametes, with the hope that after the replacement of the embryo in the woman’s uterus, a normal pregnancy follows, leading to the birth of a child. Success cannot of course be guaranteed, but the latest UK data indicate that after an IVF cycle a pregnancy is established in about 33% of cases, leading to a live birth-rate of about 25% (www.hfea.gov.uk/ ivf-figures-2006.html). After the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, this technique has been used on a large scale: there are more than five million people worldwide whose conception was achieved by IVF [1]—this includes intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which is a variant of IVF commonly used to address problems of male infertility associated with low motility of sperm.