Choosing Children - Selection
This first programme explores genetic selection, IVF medicine’s most advanced technology. Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) lets scientists read the genetic make-up of a tiny embryo, allowing people to choose if it should be given a chance of life or left to die.
PGD is a contentious technology heavily regulated in the UK. It is sometimes accused of creating 'designer babies' and, in the case of sex selection, likely to be the focus of legislation banning it. The technology was invented by Professor Winston and, in this programme, he meets people using it in ways he never intended.
Ice Babies
Freezing embryos gives people a chance when they are faced with a catastrophic end to dreams of a child of their own.
Breast cancer puts Hilary Spanswick in fear for her life and signals the end of her hopes of motherhood. There's one option: freezing embryos. It's a risk, as the fertility drugs could encourage her cancer - and there's no time to lose before chemotherapy must begin. However, if it works, she'll have her only chance of a baby later.Make Me A Dad
Wayne Mills has a lot going for him: a lovely fiancée, Marisa, and a successful roofing company. But something is missing – he wants to be a dad.
When faced with infertility, some couples go to extraordinary lengths to have a child that is genetically theirs. And some of the most exciting treatments that IVF medicine has developed are designed to help the 1 in 10 British men who suffer fertility problems.Cheating Time
With more and more women delaying motherhood, ageing has become the single biggest cause of infertility in the UK. The age and quality of a woman’s eggs plays the most important role in determining her chances of having a baby; by 40, she will be rapidly running out of eggs.
This episode features Suzanne, a woman who didn’t meet her Mr Right until she was 38. She is now 41 and happily married and she and her husband are desperate to start a family – but it may be too late. Suzanne is pinning her hopes on an IVF technique called Assisted Hatching, which she hopes will help her ageing eggs and give her the baby she longs for.The Gift Of Life
Bonny has been infertile for 17 years but she is pinning her hopes on a pioneering treatment: the transplantation of someone else’s working ovary into her own body. The donor can only be her identical twin, Crystal. However, the operation has no real track record – although it has worked in animals – and could leave Crystal herself infertile. And, if the operation is successful, this will pose a difficult question: will any resulting children be Bonny’s, or Crystal’s?Whatever It Takes
Infertile couples who spend year after year trying to have a family usually exhaust all conventional forms of IVF.
But at the outer reaches of fertility medicine, there may be some unproven treatments left to explore. This is where science is being pushed to the limits.