Hello peoples! Today we'll be talking about all of the legal issues surrounding IVF. Let's get started!
The main legal issue is ownership and custody.
What if a couple started on the process of IVF, but before the embryo was placed back inside the woman, the couple divorces, and they have to decide what to do with the baby. It is possible that both of them still want the baby, and they will have shared custody, but what if the father does not want the baby? The mother can still have the baby, but what if the father refuses to pay child support, and the mother can not afford to provide for the baby? There is no "right" way to resolve this issue, since the mother wants to provide for the baby, but is not able to. The father should also be able to not have the baby, since they divorced before it was even in the womb. This is a very difficult topic but it does occur sometimes in IVF.
What if a couple uses IVF, but uses a donor egg? Whose baby is it now? Is it the father and his wife, or is it the woman who donated her egg? Technically, the egg donor can fight for legal ownership of the baby, but it would be a very long and messy process. If the woman who donated her egg does not win, but still wants to be active with her baby, then she could be forced to pay child support.
What if the wrong embryo was placed in the woman? For example, if two women were going to the clinic to have the embryos placed back inside of them, what happens if the wrong embryo is placed in the women? For an example of this happening in real life click here. Also, just November of 2015, a woman was implanted with the wrong embryos, and instead of the doctor telling her that they made a mistake, the aborted the babies without her knowledge. For the full article please click here.
Just for the record, I did not come up with these articles by myself. I give all credit for the links to my best friend Sophia, or All Schafsnitz, who has a blog over here. Go check her out! Sophia rocks!
Hope it helped and again thank you Sophia for letting me use your articles,
Lydia
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
What does the Catholic Church Teach about IVF? - Designer Babies Part 6
Hello guys! Now we're going to talk about what the Catholic Church teaches about IVF. First, we'll be talking about the major issues the Church had with the whole process.
The Church teaches that conception should take place in the womb, which they call natural conception. The reason the Catholic Church also teaches against IVF is that if the embryos are not properly taken care of, they can be killed in the laboratory. If even just one person makes a mistake, any embryos could be damaged or killed.
Even if the embryos are not killed, they are usually frozen in liquid nitrogen. Also, embryos are used for stem cell research. Also, if someone messes up, the embryos can be labeled wrong and placed in the wrong woman's body.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
The Church teaches that conception should take place in the womb, which they call natural conception. The reason the Catholic Church also teaches against IVF is that if the embryos are not properly taken care of, they can be killed in the laboratory. If even just one person makes a mistake, any embryos could be damaged or killed.
Even if the embryos are not killed, they are usually frozen in liquid nitrogen. Also, embryos are used for stem cell research. Also, if someone messes up, the embryos can be labeled wrong and placed in the wrong woman's body.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Egg Donation and Surrogate Mothers - Designer Babies Part 5
Hey guys! Today's lesson is about Egg Donation and Surrogate Mothers.
What is Egg Donation? Egg Donation is a process in which a woman is put on fertility medication and one or several of her eggs is extracted and sold to a laboratory, where it is fertilized through IVF.
What is a Surrogate Mother? A Surrogate Mother is a woman who carries and gives birth to a child and then gives it completely over to the father and his wife. This way, if the wife is infertile, the father can fertilize another woman's egg, and then custody of the child is passed completely to the father.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
What is Egg Donation? Egg Donation is a process in which a woman is put on fertility medication and one or several of her eggs is extracted and sold to a laboratory, where it is fertilized through IVF.
What is a Surrogate Mother? A Surrogate Mother is a woman who carries and gives birth to a child and then gives it completely over to the father and his wife. This way, if the wife is infertile, the father can fertilize another woman's egg, and then custody of the child is passed completely to the father.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
Savior Siblings and Snowflake Adoption - Designer Babies Part 4
Hi guys! Today's lesson is about Savior Siblings and Snowflake Adoption. Let's get started!
What is a Savior Sibling? A Savior Sibling is a child born for the sole purpose of donating organs for living siblings with a fatal disease. For example, if a child has a non-functional liver, the parents can use IVF to create another child. The doctors can then remove the second child's liver, and donate it to the first child, saving his or her life.
What is Snowflake Adoption is when an organization adopts any leftover embryos from IVF and raise them. In my previous post about IVF, I mentioned that any leftover embryos are preserved in liquid nitrogen. Well, if the embryos are left too long, they can die. To prevent this from happening, some people adopt the embryos, and raise them as their own children.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
What is a Savior Sibling? A Savior Sibling is a child born for the sole purpose of donating organs for living siblings with a fatal disease. For example, if a child has a non-functional liver, the parents can use IVF to create another child. The doctors can then remove the second child's liver, and donate it to the first child, saving his or her life.
What is Snowflake Adoption is when an organization adopts any leftover embryos from IVF and raise them. In my previous post about IVF, I mentioned that any leftover embryos are preserved in liquid nitrogen. Well, if the embryos are left too long, they can die. To prevent this from happening, some people adopt the embryos, and raise them as their own children.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
Genetic Engineering and More... - Designer Babies Part 3
Hello everybody! Today, continuing with my Designer Babies project, we will be talking about some more things that go along with IVF.
Sometimes during IVF, a process called Genetic Engineering takes place. Genetic Engineering is when doctors add new DNA to an organism, giving them different traits than the traits they would have had originally. (e.g. if the child has the genes for blonde hair or brown hair, the doctor can make sure that the child has blonde hair, instead of the possibility of brown hair).
Something else that kind of goes along with Genetic Engineering is Three-parent In-Vitro Fertilization, or TPIVF. TPIVF is a process in which the nucleus of an egg is inserted into the cytoplasm of another egg with different DNA, and fertilizing the hybrid egg with a sperm. In simpler terms, the doctors combine the DNA of two eggs from different women, and fertilize it. The reason why some people would want to do this is maybe neither parent carries the gene for a certain trait which they want their child to have. The parents then find an egg donor with that trait, and purchase that egg. Then the nucleus of the mother's egg is dipped into the cytoplasm of the donor egg.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
Sometimes during IVF, a process called Genetic Engineering takes place. Genetic Engineering is when doctors add new DNA to an organism, giving them different traits than the traits they would have had originally. (e.g. if the child has the genes for blonde hair or brown hair, the doctor can make sure that the child has blonde hair, instead of the possibility of brown hair).
Something else that kind of goes along with Genetic Engineering is Three-parent In-Vitro Fertilization, or TPIVF. TPIVF is a process in which the nucleus of an egg is inserted into the cytoplasm of another egg with different DNA, and fertilizing the hybrid egg with a sperm. In simpler terms, the doctors combine the DNA of two eggs from different women, and fertilize it. The reason why some people would want to do this is maybe neither parent carries the gene for a certain trait which they want their child to have. The parents then find an egg donor with that trait, and purchase that egg. Then the nucleus of the mother's egg is dipped into the cytoplasm of the donor egg.
Hope this helped!
Lydia
In-Vitro Fertilization - Designer Babies Part 2
Hey all! Today's lesson is about In-Vitro Fertilization, or IVF.
What is IVF? IVF is the process of manually combining the egg and sperm in a laboratory dish, and then placing the embryo back in the uterus. Sometimes the embryo is placed in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. Usually, when the doctors extract the eggs, they extract more than one, so that if the first egg does not get fertilized, they will have extra eggs to complete the process. If any eggs that have been extracted are not used, they are preserved in liquid nitrogen, enabling them to be used again.
Before the embryo can be placed in the uterus or fallopian tube, there is a test done, called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PIGD. PIGD is a test used to confirm that there are no genetic or chromosomal disorders in place during IVF. This can also be called Embryo Screening.
That's all for now! Hope it helped...
Lydia
What is IVF? IVF is the process of manually combining the egg and sperm in a laboratory dish, and then placing the embryo back in the uterus. Sometimes the embryo is placed in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. Usually, when the doctors extract the eggs, they extract more than one, so that if the first egg does not get fertilized, they will have extra eggs to complete the process. If any eggs that have been extracted are not used, they are preserved in liquid nitrogen, enabling them to be used again.
Before the embryo can be placed in the uterus or fallopian tube, there is a test done, called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PIGD. PIGD is a test used to confirm that there are no genetic or chromosomal disorders in place during IVF. This can also be called Embryo Screening.
That's all for now! Hope it helped...
Lydia
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Designer Babies - Designer Babies Part 1
Hello, everybody! Today's lesson is about designer babies. If you don't know what that is, I'm about to tell you!
What is a designer baby? A designer baby is a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to confirm that a specific gene is present. In other words, the parents of the baby choose what genes, or traits, they want their child to possess before the baby is born (e.g. they decide whether the baby will have brown hair or blonde hair). The parents can also completely change the genetics of the baby. This all takes place through a process called In-Vitro Fertilization.
Hope this helped you all! There will be more posts on this topic very soon!
Lydia
What is a designer baby? A designer baby is a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to confirm that a specific gene is present. In other words, the parents of the baby choose what genes, or traits, they want their child to possess before the baby is born (e.g. they decide whether the baby will have brown hair or blonde hair). The parents can also completely change the genetics of the baby. This all takes place through a process called In-Vitro Fertilization.
Hope this helped you all! There will be more posts on this topic very soon!
Lydia
Monday, November 30, 2015
Penicillin
Hello everybody!!
Today's lesson is about penicillin! Some of you might not know what penicillin is, but I'm gonna teach you! Here's our lesson plan!
Today's lesson is about penicillin! Some of you might not know what penicillin is, but I'm gonna teach you! Here's our lesson plan!
- What is penicillin?
- Who created penicillin?
- What are antibiotics?
- Why are mice used to test antibiotics?
- Why are antibiotic overdoses bad?
- What was Alexander Fleming's contribution to penicillin?
- What is penicillin? Penicillin is an antibiotic used to fight bacteria in your body. It is used to fight infectious diseases such as pneumonia, gonorrhea, rheumatic fever, and ear infections. Penicillin was the very first natural antibiotic to ever be created! Good job, Mr. Fleming!
- Who created penicillin? Alexander Fleming created penicillin in 1948, but it was not confirmed and used in hospitals until November 19, 1999.
- What are antibiotics? Antibiotics are medicinal drugs used to kill or prevent reproduction in harmful bacteria. Before antibiotics were made, if you had an infected cut, all doctors could do was sit and wait, and hope that the infection didn't spread. After penicillin was made, the doctors could finally do something that stopped the infections!
- Why were mice used to test penicillin? Well, normally, scientists used Guinea pigs or hamsters to test medicines. For some reason, Mr. Fleming decided to use mice. If he hadn't used mice, there would be no penicillin right now, because drugs are toxic to Guinea pigs and hamsters! Maybe Mr. Fleming knew, maybe he didn't, but if he had used Guinea pigs, they would have died, and penicillin would have been put aside as dysfunctional.
- Why are antibiotic overdoses bad? Antibiotic overdoses don't have the same effects as other drug overdoses, but if you use penicillin, and even one bacterial cell gets away, that cell has immunity to penicillin. If that cell reproduces, that immunity is passed from the parent to the offspring, and if that cell reproduces, what happens? It just goes on and on. The more you use antibiotics, the more cells have immunity to that drug!
- Believe it or not, the founding of penicillin was an accident! Fleming found a certain type of mold in an old unwashed petri dish. He later found out that that mold held a medicine that we now call penicillin!
Here's this YouTube video that I found explaining how penicillin was found a little bit more in detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qeZLLhx5kU
I think that's it for today! Comment any questions that you may have! Also, feel free to use any information on this post! Have a good day!
Lydia
Monday, November 9, 2015
Blog posts
Hello, everybody! It's Lydia! I want to continue to write on this blog, but in order to do that, I need you guys to tell me what you want me to teach! Just comment a topic, and I will talk to my science partners, and hopefully we'll make a post explaining all that you need to know! Thanks in advance!
~~Lydia
~~Lydia
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