ABSTRACT
The medical risks posed by artificial insemination in its simplest form are identical to the risks accompanying sexual intercourse. Artificial insemination with animals dates even earlier with stories, for example, about fourteenth-century Arabs who impregnated the mares of their enemies with the semen of inferior stallions. The biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani is accredited with using artificial insemination in dogs in 1784. When practiced in medical settings, artificial insemination involves two major categories. These are commonly defined by the relationship of the inseminated woman to the man who is the source of the sperm: artificial insemination by donor, increasingly referred to as donor insemination (DI), and artificial insemination by husband. There are two histories of artificial insemination: the history of a medical practice and the history of alternative insemination by laypeople as a method of achieving pregnancy without sexual intercourse. In DI medical practice, donors are selected and screened by medical personnel, and physicians may also screen recipients.
