At Delhi IVF we absolutely respect your moral beliefs. Because of
this, we have taken the care to devise acceptable assisted
conception programs for virtually all faiths – Christianity
(including the ‘Brethren’), Islamic, Jewish (including supervised
Kosher treatment cycles), Hindu and Buddhist. We guarantee that your
egg and your sperm will never be used in a way that you have not
explicitly or implicitly consented to.
When does life start?
There are many views on the moment that represents the beginning of
a new life. Some people believe that it is the instant that the
sperm enters the egg, for others it is the moment that the genetic
material of the two parents come together (this happens some time
after fertilization and is called syngamy), while others again place
it at certain developmental milestones of the embryo or fetus, such
as implantation, nervous system development or “sentience”.
Because of these questions, some people face a moral dilemma when
considering cryostorage (freezing) of embryos after an IVF cycle.
Embryos are often cryostored if there are more produced than are
necessary for a single embryo transfer. It enables a number of
embryo transfers while stimulating the ovaries with hormones only
once.
For many people, this option is very attractive, since it is the
ovarian stimulation that is the most expensive and complicated part
of an IVF cycle. But it does mean that there are often embryos
produced that will never be transferred. For some people this is not
a morally acceptable situation.
Syngamy
Syngamy literally means “married together” and is the moment when
the genetic material from the egg and the sperm join to become
one. It occurs in the fertilized egg about 20 hours after the
sperm has entered. A few hours before syngamy the sperm’s
chromosomes and the egg’s chromosomes are visible as separate
‘spheres’ (or vacuoles) called pronuclei.
At this stage
we know the egg
has been successfully fertilized
the male and
female genetic material have not yet combined
the zygote (as
it’s called) can be transferred to the fallopian tube (by
laparoscopy or
vaginally, by ultrasound-guided catheter)
the fertilized,
pre-syngamy egg can be ‘frozen’ (cryostored) for a later
decision on its
transfer or dissolution (i.e. allowing it to dissolve away).
What are the special options and alternatives?
To provide sperm without masturbation, semen can be
collected in a non-
sperm-toxic silastic condom during sexual intercourse. These
special condoms are available from Delhi IVF.
To avoid any manipulation of eggs outside the body, consider
IUI intrauterine
insemination of prepared sperm at ovulation, which can be
stimulated to
produce multiple follicles (although with a chance of high
multiple pregnancy,
such as triplets).
To avoid fertilization outside the body, consider GIFT –
gamete intrafallopian
transfer, in which unfertilized eggs are transferred with
separate sperm into the fallopian tube at laparoscopy.
To avoid producing more eggs than will be used, consider
natural cycle IVF
(without ovarian stimulation, but with in vitro
fertilization).
To avoid producing more fertilized eggs than will be used,
we can fertilize just two or three recovered eggs after
stimulation.
To avoid producing more embryos than will be used yet still
have the medical
benefit of freezing fertilized eggs that have not yet become
embryos, we can
