New technologies mean states must reconsider what ‘reproductive rights’ are
BONGINKOSI SHOZI, Doctoral Fellow with the UKZN African Health Research Flagship, University of KwaZulu-Natal A number of technological advances have revolutionised human reproduction in the past few decades. One example is in vitro fertilisation (IVF), the process of fertilising a woman’s eggs with a man’s sperm in the laboratory. This can be a solution when men and women have problems conceiving. It also allows infertile couples to use donor sperm or eggs. Other examples include embryo transfer and pre-implantation genetic testing. The first means embryos created outside the body can be frozen, stored and later transferred into a womb. The…