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This report looks at the breakthroughs in infertility treatments and how infertility medicine has become a booming and increasingly competitive business. Some doctors and bioethicists fear reproductive medicine may be going too far and putting the interests of infertile couples and infertility doctors first and the interests of the children second. The program examines several reproductive medicine technologies including the newest infertility treatment ICSI which is using cloning techniques.
In "Making Babies," FRONTLINE examines the revolution in reproductive medicine which is bringing children to those unable to reproduce naturally, but also is raising questions about the safety of experimentation, the commercialization of reproduction and, the changing nature of the family.

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Making Babies

FRONTLINE examines the revolution in reproduction and the entrepreneurial atmosphere that imbues the practice of infertility medicine today. On the cusp of a new millennium, we can now visit the Internet and shop for sperm and egg donors. Before long, cloning could do away with the need for sperm altogether. The film looks at how these new technologies hold great promise, but usher in pressing questions regarding the very meaning of family.

The web site will offer readings and interviews with major thinkers on the moral, philosophical and societal issues surrounding the extraordinary advances in reproductive medicine; present explanations/diagrams of some of the newest medical breakthroughs; and offer a selection of the most noteworthy readings and resources on infertility.

published june 1999