Reproductive TechnologyAdvances in prenatal testing have come hand in hand with advances in medically assisted ways of making babies. The term for this kind of help is reproductive technology. Reproductive technology is often used to help people who have problems conceiving children. It also is used to help people reduce their risk of having babies with genetic disorders. One form of reproductive technology is artificial insemination. This is where a sample of sperm is taken from a man, cleaned in a special way, and then injected into his partner uterus. If the male in a couple carries a mutated gene causing a dominant disorder, the couple may choose artificial insemination using sperm given by a donor. The couple might also make this choice if they both carry the same mutated gene for a recessive disorder. In such a case, they would use a donor who does not carry a problem version of the gene. This would protect the child from inheriting the recessive disorder. Another form of assisted baby-making is called in vitro fertilization. A common term for this has been est tube babies.�(In vitro means n glass.� Actually, no test tubes are used. What happens is that a minor operation is performed on a woman to remove some of her eggs. These are mixed with sperm from her partner. Eggs that become fertilized are then implanted in the woman uterus, with the hope that one or more will grow into a fetus. In vitro fertilization with donated eggs is sometimes used when the female of a couple carries a gene mutation that causes a dominant disorder or when she carries a gene mutation for a recessive disorder that her partner also carries.Artificial insemination involves injecting a man sperm into a woman uterus.39
