ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two areas of medical technologies and their applications in the field of healthcare— assisted reproductive technologies and the life-sustaining technologies spanning two spectra of human life— the beginning of life and the end of life. Technology assessment has been highly fragmented and sporadic in the United States. Advancements in medical technology and ethical concerns raised by such technologies have given rise to the field of bioethics. Assisted reproductive technologies are noncoital methods of conception involving manipulation of both eggs and sperm. Intrauterine insemination procedure involves the placement of a man’s sperm into a woman’s uterus using a long, narrow tube like a straw. Reproductive technologies are often defined to include those aimed at enabling a couple to conceive and bear children as well as those designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies and births. Reproductive technologies help women control their own bodies and reproductive processes.
