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→Assisted reproduction
==Assisted reproduction==
Assisted reproduction refers to the use of different kinds of strategies or technologies to help people conceive and carry a child to term when they can't, or don't want , to do so, through natural reproduction. "Natural reproduction," of course, is a fancy way of saying ''sex''.
Sometimes "assisted reproduction" refers to medications or medical procedures intended to help a woman ovulate and release an egg that can be fertilized by a man's sperm. Most of the time assisted reproduction refers to fertilization of eggs outside the body in a laboratory setting, called "in vitro fertilization." In cases like this, eggs are removed from a woman's ovaries and fertilized with a man's sperm in a petri dish. If the fertilization is successful, the fertilized egg — called a ''zygote''' — is surgically implanted in a woman's uterus, where it is expected that the zygote will develop into a fetus and be carried to term.
There are also cases where people attempt to fertilize an egg at home, outside a laboratory, using a device like a poultry baster to introduce the sperm directly into a woman's vagina, and from there into her uterus and her fallopian tubes where fertilization occurs.
Laboratory processes can be extremely expensive and time-consuming, taking tens of thousands of dollars and many years to implant a zygote and bear it to term. Home-based processes, while perhaps less likely to result in a viable fetus, at least have the benefit of being cheap.
===Donors===