Alternatives in human reproduction. Methods, indications, prognosis, bioethical problems.

The alternative methods in human reproduction do nothing else than try to help an individual or a couple to achieve the primordial goal of life: perpetuation of the species. These methods try to reconstruct the biologic premises necessary for perpetuation by various means such as: a. in vitro fecundation correlated or not with artificial fecundation with donor, ovocyte donation, embryo donation, borrowed mother; b. intratubular transfer of gametes; c. unnatural circumstances, i.e., the possibility that men be a host for the embryo up to term, a hypothesis which for the time being is possible only in science-fiction. The birth of Louisa Brown in 1978 was the border between hope and certainty, between dream and pragmatism. Thus, the alternative methods of reproduction have become routine in the medical life and penetrated into the conscience of an ever greater number of people but at the same time have raised an immense number of questions regarding the status of the embryo and the foetus, but more important, of the child born under these circumstances. These questions await answers both from medicine and the law and have to be within the limits of the common sense. Those who participate in the in vitro fecundation programs should not lose their quality of being human, should pay respect to the nature and the natural, encourage hope and be moral.