The fertilization process and implications of test tube babiesWritten by Dr.Richard Waller
Through wonders of science, infertile couples who were previously unable to bear children, due to reasons such as blocked fallopian tubes, low sperm count, low egg quantities or advanced age of mother, are now able to conceive through in-vitro fertilization. The results are babies known as test-tube babies which are technically conceived outside womb.In a natural scenario, conception of a baby occurs when ovum, travels from ovaries, through fallopian tube to be fertilized by sperm of father during sexual intercourse. From this point on, fertilized egg will travel down towards uterus and during process division of cells will occur until it reaches its final destination at wall of uterus. However, in cases of block fallopian tubes, eggs are unable to travel from ovaries to uterus and conception cannot happen. Developed in United Kingdom by Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards, process of in-vitro fertilization involves removing eggs from ovaries of mother and combining them with sperm of father in a lab environment. The fertilized egg is then placed back into uterus of mother after 3 to 5 days and will remain there to grow till birth. Because of low success pregnancy rate of this procedure, a few eggs are placed in uterus to increase odds of success. With this process, statistics have shown that rates of multiple births have increased where 24 percent of in-vitro fertilization births have produced twins. The first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, who was born on 25th July 1978, marked hope for other infertile couples to have a baby through this procedure. However, many others were concerned about ethical issues surround this. One major area of concern was fact that as egg is located outside womb for a few days while cells multiplied before being put back inside uterus, health issues affecting this baby is unknown. Indeed, research has been shown that test-tube babies have a higher chance of birth defects and low birth weight, and researchers still have not been able to determine reason for this.
| | Internet And HomeschoolingWritten by Mary Joyce
In today’s internet world there are products available for just about anything you may have on your mind. Finding a myriad of internet homeschool based curriculums on web is certainly no exception. If you are relatively new to searching for information on internet or new to homeschooling in general here are a few thoughts on what to look for if you are considering a web based home school curriculum. First of all I am not a big fan of adding more ‘in front of computer’ time to any child’s day. We need to be very careful about this and habits we ingrain into our children. There will always be a battle for child’s attention when it comes to watching TV or surfing net. I believe that today, far too many children’s reading and comprehension skills suffer from too much visual high level learning and not nearly enough lower level reading and comprehending what you have read. Other questions concerning a homeschool internet curriculum that need answers would include things like: When is course available on internet? Can I access it at anytime that I want?
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