Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE.

Great Britain. Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology.

Date:: 1984

Credit: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE. Source: Wellcome Collection.

2 results

Found on image 12 / 116 (page 2)…is nobody wants. 6. In recognising that there should be limits, people are bear- ing witness to the existence of a moral ideal of society. But in our pluralistic society it is not to be expected that any one set of principles can be enunciated to be completely accepted by everyone. This is not to say that the ...
Found on image 15 / 116 (page 5)…eact to the ways in which people now see childlessness and the process of family formation, taking into account the range of views encompassed by our pluralistic society, the nature and value of clinical and scientific advances and the benefits of research. Methods of working 1.6 We found it convenient to divi...

39/116 (page 29)

TECHNIQUES FOR THE ALLEVIATION OF INFERTILITY cont'd: II In Vitro Fertilisation 5.1 Unlike AID, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is very much a new development. Of those women who are infertile a small proportion can produce healthy eggs but, although they have a normal uterus, have damaged or diseased fallopian tubes which prevent the egg passing from the ovary to the uterus. A certain proportion of these women can be helped by tubal surgery. Until IVF became a reality, the possibility of achieving a pregnancy for women with tubal problems was not great. IVF may be appropriate perhaps for 5% of infertile couples. Recently claims have been made for IVF as a treatment for other forms of infertility including its use in the treatment of oligospermia’ and unexplained infertility. 5.2 The concept of IVF is simple. A ripe human egg is extracted from the ovary, shortly before it would have been released naturally. Next, the egg is mixed with the. semen of the husband or partner, so that fertilisation can occur. The feftilised egg, once it has started to divide, is then transferred back to the mother’s uterus. In practice the technique for recov- ery of the eggs, their culture outside the mother’s body, and the transfer of the developing embryo to the uterus has to be carried out under very carefully controlled conditions. The development of laparoscopic? techniques during the 1960s made the collection of the egg, in cases where the ovaries were acces- sible, relatively easy. (Another technique for egg recovery based on ultrasound identification? has now been developed.) It was 1 Oligospermia is the term used to describe semen in which the number of sperm present is reduced or markedly reduced compared with the number of sperm present in normal semen. 2 The laparoscope is an optical surgical instrument which is used to inspect the internal abdominal and pelvic organs so that minor surgical procedures can be per- formed including the recovery of one or more eggs from those ovarian follicles that are ripe. Laparoscopy usually requires a general anaesthetic but does not usually involve an overnight stay in hospital. 3 Ultrasound can now be used to identify the position of a ripe follicle containing an egg. A needle is then passed through the woman’s abdominal wall and other organs and is guided to the follicle by use of ultrasound. The egg is then withdrawn through the needle. This technique can be used under local anaesthetic and can be used to recover more than one egg at a time.

Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology / Chairman: Dame Mary Warnock, DBE.

Licence and re-use

Contents

2 results