Family Law

Goodbye, IVF. Hello, IVG.

New reproductive technology has some significant potentialities.

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This past week, Debora L. Spar — Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School — penned an interesting opinion piece in the New York Times on the future of family structures, thanks to the emerging technology of “IVG.” What is IVG? Wait, hold on a second. I’m getting there. In the opinion piece, Spar posits that IVG “will dismantle completely the reproductive structure of heterosexuality.” Okay, you have my attention, Ms. Spar. Go on.

What’s The Latest Acronym All About? 

Since you’ve been patient, let’s back up and unpack the newest assisted reproductive technology acronym. With in vitro fertilization (IVF) eggs and sperm combine — outside of the body — to create an embryo that can be implanted in a uterus. Well, in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) is a little more mind-bending. In IVG, an ordinary adult cell, such as from skin or blood, is reverse-engineered to what’s called an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), essentially, an initial embryonic stage of a cell before it becomes a spleen cell or toenail cell. iPSCs are then turned into eggs or sperm, and from there, regular IVF can combine the eggs and sperm into embryos.

Seems a little too futuristic? This latest technology has successfully taken mice cells, differentiated them into sperm and eggs cells, and created embryos, which later resulted in baby mice. Aww. This technology has also been used to create immature human eggs — not quite ready for fertilization, but definitely demonstrating potential in human cells. And this advancement has demonstrated potential to become a giant leap forward in technology. Not to mention the sci-fi futures we can imagine. Any cell, from anyone, can become a sperm or an egg? Wow. Once an effective artificial womb has been invented, our children will be ordering their own siblings from Amazon through the kitchen Echo.

The Dismantling Already Occurred

I agree with Spar that IVG technology, whenever it comes to fruition, will be a game-changer. But in some ways, the game has already changed. Spar argues that IVG will dismantle the reproductive structure of heterosexuality. But that train has left the station. IVF, and the increasing use, and acceptance of use, of donor, egg, sperm, and embryos, has already decoupled reproduction and heterosexuality. Not to mention that the law has generally moved in favor of supporting these changes, particularly in the United States and Canada. The law has increasingly evolved to acknowledge that parents do not need to be genetically related to their children in order to received legal acknowledgment and protection of their relationship.

If anything, IVG could push the dial back to intended parents being more often able to be genetically related to their children. The complications of donated gametes and embryos emerged because hopeful parents couldn’t use their own gametes and had to turn to other options for sperm or eggs. If there is an option for parents to use their own cells through IVG, the use of donated gametes will decrease, possibly and ironically returning more parents to the more traditional parenting arrangement of being genetically related to their children.

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The Changing Family

The larger and more complex family structures that Spar refers to — with more than two parents — largely have already come about because of the use of donor gametes. We have seen jurisdictions like Ontario, Canada, allow a child to have up to four parents, and a number of states have recognized more than two. This is frequently because of donor gametes and the disassembling of the reproductive structure of heterosexuality. These arrangements are often a same-sex female couple or a same-sex male couple or both, that choose to have the genetically related donor-parent and their spouse or partner, all part of the supportive family structure raising the child. If two women or two men in a same-sex couple could choose to both be related to their child, they most likely would — assuming costs or other factors aren’t a barrier. That is likely to reduce some potential parenting groups back to two, versus increasing two-plus parenting groups, in contrast to Spar’s theory.

When Is The Brave New World Arriving?

While some accounts argue that IVG technology is only a few years off, others, probably more reliably, argue that with safety testing and other steps it is more likely 20 to 40 years off. With that timeline, I won’t close up my donor legal practice yet. But I will be watching with anticipation for the amazing new things we will be able to do in the future to solve current problems. And, unlike Spar, I’m not worried about a dystopian future. We already have the technology for that.

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Ellen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, and co-host of the podcast I Want To Put A Baby In You. You can reach her at babies@abovethelaw.com.

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