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You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hey shortwaivers, Regina Barbara here.

Recently the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that under state law,

Emprios are, quote, extra-yuturing children, end quote. So somebody can be held legally responsible if they destroy them.

This ruling is on a wrongful death lawsuit involving in vitro fertilization or IVF,

the fertility technique which combines egg and sperm outside of the body. The case was brought by couples whose frozen embryos were destroyed in an accident at a

fertility clinic in Mobile, Alabama.

Already in light of this ruling, multiple clinics and Alabama's largest hospital, the University

of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, have paused some or all of their IVF treatments for patients and

lawmakers are introducing legislation to protect IVF treatment. And all of this

talk of IVF it has me thinking of a conversation my co-host Emily

Kwong had with a reproductive endocrinologist based at the University of Chicago.

We're going to meet Amanda Adelier.

She's someone who helps people get pregnant.

Amanda's specialty is in vitro fertilization,

and it's been growing in popularity in the last few decades.

The growth of IVF in particular has been exponential from just the very first IVF cycle that was successful in 1978 with Louise Brown until in 2020 at least in the

United States there were over 200,000 IVF cycles that were completed.

Since 1985 almost half a million babies have been born using IVF in the United

States. This technology has made it possible for so many more people to become parents.

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