Técnicas de reproducción asistida en animales aplicadas al ser humano: implicaciones legales y sociales

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are very important both socially and scientifically. More and more people are resorting to them, either because of fertility problems or because they are women without a partner or whose partner is another woman. In the case of heterosexual couples, it is very important to elucidate the cause of infertility in order to define the most appropriate treatment. If pharmacological and/or surgical treatments do not work, ARTs are used as the last option to achieve pregnancy and childbirth. In the case of single women or women in same-sex relationships, they resort to ART because of the lack of male gametes. However, there may also be a medical cause of infertility that should be studied. In Spain, ARTs are regulated by the “Ley 14/2006 de 26 de mayo sobre TRA”. This law considers artificial insemination (AI), in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with own or donor gametes and pre-embryo transfer and gamete intrafallopian gamete transfer as assisted reproduction techniques. Artificial insemination is a relatively simple method. It consists of injecting sperm into the uterine cavity or cervix of the woman to achieve in vivo fertilisation. The IVF is more complicated because the fertilisation must occur outside the female reproductive tract. Therefore, natural conditions must be imitated. ICSI is a variation of IVF in which the sperm is injected directly into the oocyte. An important adjuvant technique is the preimplantation genetic diagnosis. It is useful to detect possible diseases or chromosomal defects. Furthermore, ART has many legal and social implications. They give women without a male partner access to motherhood, at least in Spain, where the law allows it. In our country, ARTs are gaining importance due to various social ad economic factors. Finally, these ARTs have come a long way from a technical point of view. However, there is still room for improvement in success rates. The number of multiple pregnancies must also be reduced