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''.) Assisted reproduction may be necessary when the people involved in a family relationship are of the same sex, when one of the people involved in an opposite-sex relationship are sterile or infertile, or when a woman is unable to carry a pregnancy to term.

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.