levo

Foundations of Ethics with Special Reference to Issues in Medical Ethics

Infertility, IVF, surrogacy and the status of the embryo

  • 3 things to know
  • AS

Overview

What happens in in vitro fertilisation, legal position of surrogacy arrangements in the United Kingdom and principle of ownership as it arises in assisted conception.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Outline what happens in in vitro fertilisation.

Key term

Why do spare embryos present a moral problem?

Key term

How is infertility usually defined clinically?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How is infertility usually defined clinically?

    Model answer

    Infertility is usually defined as the failure to conceive after a year or more of regular unprotected intercourse.

  2. 2

    Roughly how common is infertility in the United Kingdom?

    Model answer

    Around one couple in seven in the United Kingdom has difficulty conceiving.

  3. 3

    Outline what happens in in vitro fertilisation.

    Model answer

    In in vitro fertilisation the ovaries are stimulated to produce several eggs, the eggs are collected and fertilised with sperm in the laboratory, and one or two resulting embryos are transferred to the womb.

  4. 4

    Who pioneered in vitro fertilisation, and when was the first child born?

    Model answer

    Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards pioneered the technique, and Louise Brown was born in 1978 as the first child conceived by in vitro fertilisation.

  5. 5

    Why do spare embryos present a moral problem?

    Model answer

    Treatment usually creates more embryos than are transferred, so the remainder are frozen, donated to research or allowed to perish, which anyone holding that the embryo has full status regards as the loss of human lives.

  6. 6

    Distinguish traditional from gestational surrogacy.

    Model answer

    In traditional surrogacy the surrogate's own egg is used, so she is the genetic mother; in gestational surrogacy an embryo created from other gametes is transferred, so she has no genetic link to the child.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke
An Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles
An Introduction to Themes in the Old Testament
The Origins and Development of the Early Christian Church to AD 325

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Amos came from in Judah.
TekoaBethelSamaria

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AOne guest has bought a field and must go to see it.
BAnother has bought five yoke of oxen and must try them out.
CA third has just been married.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Atheism asserts that there is no God.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Foundations of Ethics with Special Reference to Issues in Medical Ethics, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.