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==Introduction==
Assisted reproduction relies on the assistance help of other people to conceive a child. It is necessary when:
#a person wants to have a child without someone else being a parent of that child;
#the cooperation of a woman who will carry the baby to term as a surrogate mother.
The 2004 federal ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vzj Assisted Human Reproduction Act]'' regulates the scientific and commercial aspects of assisted reproduction. From a family law perspective, the important parts of this act make it illegal to sell eggs or sperm, and say that a surrogate mother can't be given money for her services apart from compensation for her expenses.
The provincial ''[[Family Law Act]]'' lets people make agreements when they who are having a child by assisted reproduction that say which of the parties to the agreement decide who will and won't be a legal parent of their child, by making an agreement in writing before the childis conceived. (This part of the act is really awesome because it lets people decide who the parents of a child will be, for ''all '' purposes of the law of British Columbia, without having to go to court to get an order saying who the parents of a child are.) Under the ''Family Law Act'', a child can have up to six legal parents if everyone agrees:
#up to t two people who intend to have the child;
#a donor of eggs;
#a donor of sperm;
==Assisted reproduction processes==
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 would rather not through natural reproduction. ("Natural reproduction," of course, is a fancy way of saying ''sex''.) Assisted reproduction may be necessary when a single person wants to have a child on their own, when the people involved in a family relationship are of the same sex, , or when a woman is unable to carry a pregnancy to term. Problems involving sterility and infertility may be addressed through the use of sperm or eggs donated by a third-party, while problems involving carrying a pregnancy to term may be addressed by having another woman carry the pregnancy.
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.