IVF Will Become Better Than Sex As A Means Of Reproduction, Scientists Have Predicted

This is one of those, "Is it an MRA issue, or does it touch on one, or not?" things. I am going to say it is not really, but I think if you squinted really hard, maybe you could see it as one. I see it more as a human-race and where-are-we-going issue. But I posted it anyway. (Sometimes I break my own rules, but when I do, I say so.). Hey though if you disagree with me on this and think it is an MRA issue, feel free to let me have it. :)

To get back on subject... I think this is of concern, or ought to be one, for humanity, because when a species starts relying on non-natural (ie, outside their ordinary natural-born system) of reproducing, they tend to get "reproductively weak". Humans started down this path now over 200 years ago. We started using surgical intervention much more regularly to ensure a higher successful birthrate and maternal survival rate. Well, of course, if we can, let's do it. And I wouldn't suggest we stop.

Like cows however, we may get to a point in time, albeit not right away, that we cannot reproduce without scientific methods, if inherent weaknesses in our ability to reproduce are allowed to propagate. (Cows by and large cannot give birth without human intervention - farmers helping deliver calves for generations since mass-domestication have allowed cows to propagate genes that cause uterine muscles to be too weak for the job.) Granted the most likely users of IVF are well-to-do westerners comprising less than .0001% of those even eligible to get to this technology, much less afford it, nonetheless it's where it's leading that ought to be of concern. Expensive new technologies have a way of becoming cheap and available very fast. Not long ago, a handful of rich people had electric lights to use at night. Now people all over the world have them and they are far from rich. Can IVF and what it can allow people to do be available to much of the world's population in just 100-200 years? Sure, it's possible.

If people eventually stop using in-utero gamete-fusion (ie: good old fashioned sperm-and-egg in-the-bedroom mommy-daddy SEX) as a way to make new humans, ways in which this means of reproducing might allow for genetic abnormalities that would have caused a spontaneous natural abortion (ie, an early-stage miscarriage) to occur instead will be in traits in new individuals. So, would IVF then lead to more birth-defected children? Would it lead to people with less-strong, for example, immune systems? Dunno. I reckon we'll find out, though.

IMO, it is not your mainstream MRA issue, but I get what Matt is saying about it being a human issue. There is also the hint that men are no longer neccesary to become pregnant and I worry about what that will do to the male/female relationship and the family unit.

Some customers probably have legitimate fertility problems, but many are older women that made the decision to wait, or they are single (both single men and women are opting for surrogacy).

I am sure there is a reason why nature did not give single people or older women the means to conceive and we will probably see some negative side effects real soon.

Personally, I do not see infertility as a problem as there are orphanages all over the world filled with children waiting to be adopted.

Maybe my attitude towards artificial conception is biased since I have never had any problems with fertility, Also being adopted, I don't understand all the importance of having a biological child vs an adoptive child.

manonthestreet

Reducing things to the mere mechanical does diminish the human race. So is there a choice between IVF and sex? Well all of us here wouldn't want sex now would we?

There is no hint to what you talk about. Their method would just be a controlled way of fertilizing a sperm with an egg then cultivating the embryo in computer controlled storage facilities. The thing they may have hinted at seems to be that the womb could be replaced "his report argues that this method can be combined with separate scientific research to development the ideal nutrient solution in which human embryos should be cultured".

Either way scientists in the future will certainly be able to create a sperm or an egg from a stem cell. They will also be able to create an artificial womb. Probably before the creation of an artificial womb they will be able to make a man pregnant as there has already been a baby that grew outside of the womb. If I'm not wrong the baby attached itself to some other organ in the woman's body (an accident of nature) and ended up a healthy kid last I heard.

The incubation solution mentioned above just makes me think of Keanu and the Matrix. The issue I have with bio-technology is that we have used it many times without knowing the health implications. Also the rate at which technology is growing and its capacity is making the future harder to predict than ever. Its just ironic how technology is supposed to be something that gives us control but in so many ways it really takes that away.

It may be in our nature to advance but nature is not always good, it can be chaotic and violent too.

I hope you don't mind me going on... but the advancement of technology makes me wonder about the nature of society. While this is too much of a simplificetion I must ask, what gives us our humanistic values? To what extent and in what manner is it inherent to us and how much of it is developed by codependency. If future technology removed many of our needs for others what would we become? Would if those in power didn't need to value the work of those below them as much as they do now. Would if "families" could be created in labs? I don't mean to be apocalyptic but I just wonder...

Sounds like Brave New World to me...

The natural method has a way of strengthening the race if it is not tampered with. Mass formula feeding of infants in this country caused an epidemic of allergy problems due to infants not receiving the proper anti bodies provided in mothers milk. The flood of man made chemicals have wreaked havoc with the human system, including our reproductive system. I guess we need to clean up our act. The farther we go from the natural method the weaker we seem to get as a race. Anybody else see a pattern? For those that can't have children there is always adoption after being checked out. When I hear stuff like this I start to think of the movie the Matrix. Just my two cents worth.

David A. DeLong