The team then harvested some of these eggs and managed to produce a normal embryo through in vitro fertilisation.

ECONOMIST: Frozen ovaries could help women to stay fertile

Using in vitro fertilisation to select the sex of a child is illegal in Canada, and the ad was soon withdrawn.

ECONOMIST: Distorted sex ratios in Ontario

The amendment would grant full legal protection to embryos and foetuses and could outlaw some forms of birth control, stem-cell research and possibly in vitro fertilisation.

BBC: North Dakota introduces toughest abortion law in US

Rich urbanites are increasingly willing to pay the fines, or sometimes even buy expensive in vitro fertilisation treatment that might increase their chances of having multiple births.

ECONOMIST: China

Indeed, the same objection also applies to stem cells that are extracted from embryos produced without nuclear transfer. (Usually these are surplus to requirements for in vitro fertilisation.) Both problems would go away if cells that behave like embryonic stem cells could be made without destroying embryos.

ECONOMIST: Human embryonic stem cells

Once embryos are created by in-vitro fertilisation and still growing in the laboratory, it is possible to pluck a cell or two from them and use molecular probes to pinpoint defective genes.

ECONOMIST: Gene genies

When the pregnancy is the result of insemination or in-vitro fertilisation without consent.

BBC: Brazil doctors' council backs abortion reform

Personhood supporters say the measure would not ban in-vitro fertilisation, but neither would it permit unused embryos to be destroyed.

ECONOMIST: The status of the unborn

This pointed up the fact that some local health authorities restrict, or do not provide, procedures such as in-vitro fertilisation, cosmetic surgery and renal dialysis.

ECONOMIST: Health: Milburn’s balancing act | The