you have been exposed to the various forms of fertility and reproductive ‘tools’ which currently exist – e.g., artificial insemination using a sperm donor, then also In vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogacy, among other methods to help people conceive.

After reading on conception and fertilization, take a look at the questions posed below and consider your responses carefully, then post your reactions/opinions to this forum.

Consider this scenario:

Imagine that you have decided that you want to raise a family and are at the point in your life where you are ready for children. You and your partner have been trying to conceive a child for months without success, but you’ve not really been paying attention. When you realize it’s been many months without success, you two decide to get serious and start ‘maximizing’ your chances by being more conscientious about timing (timing of ovulation, or peak fertility during the month). Still, more months go by and no success. It’s been a full year now and still no success, and you’re quite surprised, as you’d never thought you or your family had any fertility issues. One day during casual conversation with friends, you find out about a reputable doctor who has helped couples with fertility issues – you don’t know what that means, but you figure maybe it wouldn’t hurt to find out why you haven’t been successful after a year of trying. So, you two go into the doctor to have a consultation and the doctor does some testing. She tells you the results of the tests and explains your fertility treatment options.

Answer these questions: If you found that you (or your partner) could not conceive naturally without reproductive/fertility assistance, how likely is it that you would forgo having your own biological children (and either adopt or not have children)? Would you try to conceive using whatever reproductive medical therapies there are – would you be open to some methods, but not others (for example, using hormone treatments for egg-related problems? Sperm donor in the case of a sperm-related problem? Using In-vitro fertilization for other egg-related problems? Using a surrogate (gestational carrier)?) Would you simply go the adoption route and “give up” having biological children? Finally, if you would choose not to use any fertility treatments, how do you feel about others who do? What are you thoughts?

In your answers, simply explain what you think about reproductive/fertility treatments and how you think you’d respond if you were in the situation I’ve described.

You don’t necessarily need to write a book to answer these questions, but I want you to provide a thorough, thoughtful reflection on the issues I’ve raised