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Well aware of how difficult conception or carrying a baby to term can be, some couples who hope to exercise a bit of control over an unpredictable experience are opting to do in vitro fertilization first.. ... In the United States, more than 2 percent of all infants born are conceived using assisted reproductive technology, of which I.V.F. is the most common. At least 12 million babies have been born globally using I.V.F. since 1978... ... At age 35, there is a 15 percent chance of conceiving naturally per month... At 40, that drops to 5 percent. ... I.V.F., however,...

By defining parenthood by intention instead of biology, legalized surrogacy becomes a vicious process that is destructive of human life.One of the last states to do so, New York recently legalized commercial surrogacy. This means New Yorkers can now pay women to carry a baby to term. Under New York’s law, which state Sen. Brad Hoylman touts as “a model for other states,” surrogate mothers are also guaranteed legal representation and an abortion if they so choose.Naturally, Gov. Andrew Cuomo touts this as a triumph of “love over fear” and a much-needed update to the law. In contrast to the...

A stunning explosion of zinc fireworks occurs when a human egg is activated by a sperm enzyme, and the size of these "sparks" is a direct measure of the quality of the egg and its ability to develop into an embryo, according to new research from Northwestern Medicine. The discovery has potential to help doctors choose the best eggs to transfer during in vitro fertilization (IVF), the scientists said. This is the first time the zinc sparks have been documented in a human egg. "This means if you can look at the zinc spark at the time of fertilization, you...

Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film. An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception. Scientists had seen the phenomenon occur in other animals but it is the first time is has been also shown to happen in humans. Not only is it an incredible spectacle, highlighting the very moment that a new life begins, the size of the flash can be used to determine the quality of the fertilised egg. Researchers...

Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film. An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception. Scientists had seen the phenomenon occur in other animals but it is the first time is has been also shown to happen in humans.

Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film. An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception.

FRESNO (CBS/AP) — A drone large enough to carry tanks of fertilizers and pesticides has won rare approval from federal authorities to spray crops in the United States. Steve Markofski of Yamaha Corp. U.S.A. said Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval is a first. He says drones are already used to take pictures to help farmers identify unhealthy patches of crops, but this is the first time they’ll be able to carry a payload. Markofski says Yamaha’s 207-pound (94-kilogram) RMAX looks like a small helicopter and is remotely piloted. It received FAA approval Friday. Markofski says farmers in Japan...

MADRID – A Spanish woman believed to have become the world's oldest new mother when she gave birth at 66 has died at 69, leaving behind twin toddlers, newspapers reported Wednesday. Maria del Carmen Bousada, who reportedly died Saturday, gave birth in December 2006 as a single mother after getting in vitro fertilization treatment at a clinic in Los Angeles. The births ignited a firestorm of debate over how old is too old for a new mother, and how much responsibility fertility clinics have over who gets treatments.

At 11:47 p.m., on July 25, 1978, a five-pound 12-ounce baby girl was born. But this baby, Louise Joy Brown, the daughter of Lesley and John Brown from Bristol, England made medical history. She was the first baby born successfully from a process called in vitro fertilization (IVF). Since then millions of babies have been born using IVF, blessing families that had struggled with the heartache of infertility, sometimes for years. But IVF has a dark side. IVF is a procedure in which a woman is given fertility drugs to cause her to produce multiple eggs that are then extracted...

Almost anyone with a high school education can correctly answer the question “When does human life begin?” by responding “at conception” or at “fertilization” of a human egg by a sperm cell. While we may not understand, or only vaguely recall, the precise process by which an egg and sperm combine to create a new unique human being, this basic truth about human life falls into the category of things we can’t not know. Yet today, many educated people who do know better assert that human life begins at some later stage of development.They arbitrarily push forward the starting point...

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH 131,000 Coloradans endorse 'personhood' plan Ballot initiative would extend constitution's protections to pre-born Posted: May 13, 2008 9:41 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily Kristi Burton, spokeswoman for Colorado for Equal Rights, and her mother announcing more than 131,000 Coloradans want a personhood amendment on the 2008 election ballot More than 131,000 Coloradans have endorsed a plan to put an initiative on the fall 2008 election ballot that would allow voters to extend the U.S. Constitution's protections to those who haven't been born yet, something supporters say the U.S. founders intended all along. In a campaign...

Fusion protein could be targeted to stop parasites from reproducing. When two become one: the mysterious process of fertilisation.Getty Boy meets girl. Sperm meets egg. Now, scientists are a step closer to understanding the climax of this eternal love story: how sperm and egg merge to create a brand new individual. “It’s really the defining moment in an organism,” says William Snell, a biologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, who headed one of the teams that made the find. Snell, along with a group in Britain, discovered that a protein called HAP2 is involved...

Commentary by Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International On September 28th the Connecticut bishops issued an unfortunate statement allowing the Plan B abortion-causing drug to be used in cases of rape in Catholic hospitals. I have written respectfully and urgently to the Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC) and to each bishop individually to ask them to withdraw this potentially precedent-setting statement, and I pray that they do so. I am extremely concerned that this statement will begin to have a domino effect on other Catholic hospitals and healthcare institutions, and I write to you today to ask your...

U.S. Catholic Health Association Giving Flawed Advice on Morning After Pill to Catholic Hospitals Commentary republished with permission by Matt Bowman of Alliance Defense FundExcerpted from http://www.constitutionallycorrect.com/archive/2007/10/03/553.aspx WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Connecticut Catholic hospitals' spokesman Barry Feldman, in statements discussing the new policy allowing emergency contraception for rape victims even though embryos might not implant as a result, listed the Catholic Health Association as support for the new policy. The position of the Catholic Health Association on "emergency contraception" is well known and seriously flawed.  It basically presents "emergency contraception" as permissible even after a positive ovulation...

DUBLIN -- Female sharks can fertilize their own eggs and give birth without sperm from males, according to a new study of the asexual reproduction of a hammerhead in a US zoo. The joint Northern Ireland-US research, published today in the Royal Society's Biology Letter journal, analyzed the DNA of a shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha . The shark was born in a tank with three potential mothers, none of whom had had contact with a male hammerhead for at least three years. Analysis of the baby shark's DNA found no trace of any...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study reported in a prestigious medical journal confirms that the morning after pill does not reduce either abortion or pregnancy rates. The survey, published this month in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, covers the use of the Plan B drug in 10 countries. Authors Elizabeth Raymond and James Trussell, advocates of the morning after pill, conducted a meta-analysis of studies conducted in 10 countries. They conclude that “increased access to emergency contraception pills enhance use but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates." The authors note that “no study has shown...

This article reports on a 1993 lecture the late French geneticist and pro-life pioneer Dr. Jerome Lejeune delivered at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. This story originally appeared in the January 1994 Columbia and is a companion article to the January 2007 "By Their Works" profile of Knight and pro-life entrepreneur Bill Schneeberger. Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist, still marvels at the circumstances that caused him to travel from his laboratory in Paris to a Tennessee courtroom to give expert testimony about when life begins. The 1989 case involved...

Vatican City, Apr. 20, 2006 (CNA) - Italian Vatican analyst Sandro Magister is releasing a long dialogue Cardinal  Martini sustained with Ignazio Marino, famous Italian bio-ethicist, and director of the Center of transplants of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, about abortion, in-vitro fecundation and contraceptionAnd the answer is: “not immediatly with conception, but after” said Cardinal Martini, about when life starts, “with the consequences that derive from it,” added Magister. The long dialogue between the two men will be released in the next issue of the weekly “L’espresso,” a center-left weekly tomorrow,  it will be made available by Sandro...

Mammalian sperm must reside in the female reproductive tract before they are able to undergo the acrosome reaction. This maturation process is called capacitation. The mammalian egg is surrounded by an extracellular envelope called the zona pellucida, to which sperm must bind and penetrate before they can make contact with the surface of the egg itself. The zona pellucida of the mouse egg contains three glycoproteins called ZP-1, ZP-2 and ZP-3 that polymerize to form a gel. The zona of newly-ovulated eggs is also surrounded by a constellation of follicle cells in a matrix of hyaluronic acid. Figure 1 shows...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, JUNE 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A flurry of news stories on in vitro fertilization techniques emanated from the 21st Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. The conference, held from Sunday to Wednesday in Copenhagen, heard from speakers about the latest research developments. A press release posted Monday on the conference Web site explained that scientists in the United Kingdom have proved that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm. This opens up the possibility that eggs and sperm could be...