STUDY QUESTION Is there a difference in fertility between heterosexual women and lesbians undergoing sperm donation? SUMMARY ANSWER Women undergoing treatment with donated sperm are equally fertile regardless of sexual orientation. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Lesbians have an increased prevalence of smoking, obesity, sexually transmitted diseases and, possibly, polycystic ovary syndrome, all fact...

In 2004, the Italian Parliament enacted a law regulating medically assisted reproduction. Although the law recognizes as legal certain assisted reproduction techniques, several other procedures are implicitly or expressly banned: oocyte and sperm donation, using embryos for the scientific research purposes and reproductive cloning. In this article, I outline the new legal framework, pointing ou...

This paper examines the consistency of parent selection procedures, focusing on adoption and embryo donation. It outlines the current methods of selection and their disparities, and considers reasons for these disparities; namely, the intentionality of the parents, the gestational experience, and the technological imperative. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the ethical validity of...

The objective of this study was to evaluate, using an embryo donation model, whether impaired oocyte/embryo developmental competence and/or changes in uterine milieu are responsible for the previously observed adverse effects of superovulation with gonadotrophins on implantation and fetal development in mice. Embryos from superovulated and non-stimulated females were transferred to separate ute...

introduction: organ donation is one of the surviving procedures which can increase the life expectancy of end-stage patients. inappropriate beliefs and attitude of individuals to organ donation, their poor knowledge, and the socio-economic level are one of the most important barriers for organ donation. therefore, here knowledge and attitude levels among relatives of trauma patients regarding o...

For centuries a woman who bore a child was clearly the birth mother of that child: mater est quam gestatio demonstrat. However, this relationship is no longer unequivocal. The possibility of embryo transfer or egg donation separates biological motherhood into genetic and gestational components. With the announcement in 1997 of the live birth of the first cloned adult mammal using differentiated...