Q.Write the basic steps followed in the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) programme to help childless couples. Why is it also known as test tube baby programme?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) are medical procedures that help childless couples conceive by handling eggs, sperm, or embryos outside the body, with the "test tube baby" programme being the most well-known form.
Assisted Reproductive Technology, or ART, is a broad term for a range of medical techniques designed to overcome infertility. Infertility affects many couples worldwide, and ART offers hope where natural conception fails. The most famous and earliest form of ART is the "test tube baby" programme, technically called in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The term "test tube baby" is a popular, though slightly misleading, name that stuck because the fertilisation of the egg by the sperm happens outside the woman's body, typically in a glass dish or test tube in a laboratory.
The basic steps in an ART programme, as described in the NCERT textbook, follow a clear sequence. First, the female partner is given hormones to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs instead of the usual one per month. This is called superovulation. Once the eggs are mature, they are retrieved from the ovary using a minor surgical procedure. Simultaneously, sperm is collected from the male partner.
The crucial step happens next: the egg and sperm are combined in a laboratory dish to allow fertilisation to occur. This is the in vitro (meaning "in glass") part. After fertilisation, the resulting embryo is allowed to develop for a few days. Finally, the healthiest embryo or embryos are transferred into the mother's uterus, a step called embryo transfer. If the embryo implants successfully, a pregnancy begins.
The term "test tube baby" is a bit of a misnomer because the fertilisation actually happens in a flat, shallow dish called a Petri dish, not a tall test tube. The name became popular in the 1970s when the first such baby, Louise Brown, was born, and the media latched onto the dramatic image of a baby conceived in a test tube.
Why is the entire ART programme often called the "test tube baby programme"? The reason is historical and cultural. When the first successful IVF birth occurred in 1978, the media needed a simple, catchy phrase to explain a complex scientific breakthrough. The image of a baby being conceived in a test tube captured the public imagination. Over time, the term "test tube baby" became synonymous with any baby conceived through ART, even though the technology has since expanded to include many other techniques like intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT). …
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