Reproductive Technologies and family ties

In vitro fertilization (IVF) revolutionized procreation and family-making in the late 1970s by making possible the separation of conception from sex. Since the birth of the first “IVF baby” Louise Brown in 1978, techniques like IVF have routinized rapidly, against initial predictions: it is estimated that at least 12 million babies have been born with the help of IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies (ART).1 Furthermore, ART-related births are projected to reach at least 167 million people by the year 2100—if not much more.2 On the surface, it seems that everybody's reproductive autonomy is expanding in virtue of these developments: aspiring parents can potentially procreate with the help of third parties, as with innovations like gestational surrogacy and uterus transplantation (UTx), and even those not actively trying to procreate have options to cryopreserve their own gametes for later use. Given that people nowadays delay childbearing for various reasons3 and one in six people are reported to experience infertility worldwide,4 it seems plausible to assume that aspiring parents will continue to turn to reproductive technologies in the hopes of attaining biogenetic procreation where “natural” conception is not an option.