Reproductive technology - Definition and Overview

Reproductive technology is a term for all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including:

• artificial insemination
• artificial wombs
• cloning (see human cloning for the special case of human beings)
• cryopreservation of sperm, oocytes, embryos
• embryo testing
• embryo transfer
• genetic engineering
• hormone treatment to increase fertility
• in vitro fertilization
  • intracytoplasmic sperm injection
• preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)
• sperm selection

Assisted reproduction or assisted reproductive technology (ART) is sometimes used as a term for fertility treatment using reproductive technology.

Contraception may also be viewed as a form of reproductive technology, as it enables people to control their fertility.

Many issues of reproductive technology have led to ethical issues being raised, since it often alters the assumptions that lie behind existing systems of sexual and reproductive morality.

Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World was one of the earliest works to anticipate the social consequences of reproductive technology.