Where Babies Come From

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Doctors harvest ripened ova by passing a long needle through the vaginal or abdominal wall, puncturing ovarian follicles, and aspirating the fluid.  Sperm and ova are then mixed in a glass dish (in vitro).  Eighteen hours later, the doctor removes one or more embryos using a catheter and injects it through the vagina and cervix into the uterus, where the embryo will implant in the uterine lining and grow normally.

That’s my final goal, I call it an “artificial uterus.” I want to see whether I can develop an actual external device with this endometrium cell and then probably with a computer system simulate the feed in medium, feed out medium, simulating the abrupt stream and also have a chip controlling the hormonal level . . . so then you could grow a baby to term.

–Professor Helen Liu, Cornell University, 2001