IVF

abbreviation (Health and Fitness) (Science and Technology) Short for in vitro fertilization, a technique for helping infertile couples to conceive, in which eggs taken from the woman are fertilized with her partner's sperm in a laboratory and some are then reimplanted in the womb. (Known colloquially as the test-tube baby technique.) Etymology: The initial letters of In Vitro Fertilization; in vitro is Latin for 'in glass' (i.e. the laboratory 'test-tube'--although it is actually a small dish that is used). History and Usage: The technique was pioneered in the late seventies by British obstetrician Mr Patrick Steptoe. During the eighties it became available to larger numbers of women as one of the two principal means of helping infertile couples to have a child (the other being GIFT). IVF has been criticized on moral grounds because fertilized eggs (held by some to be living beings from the moment of fertilization) are necessarily wasted in the process, and also because of the high incidence of multiple births resulting from the technique. The Hammersmith technique is one of several new off-shoots of IVF, originally designed for the one-in-10 couples who are infertile and of whom an estimated 25 per cent may benefit from IVF techniques. Guardian 19 July 1989, p. 27 Clinics are monitored by an interim licensing authority, which is concerned about the number of multiple births and says the Government is throwing away an opportunity to reduce the IVF death rate. Sunday Correspondent 6 May 1990, p. 3 See also ZIFT