How can you put a price on a human life? Do parents have the right to design their offspring? Thanks to the latest technological advances, fertility has become a $2 billion a year industry. The latest drugs and techniques have given hope to couples who can't conceive. But these medical breakthroughs bring up many ethical issues.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF)

"In vitro" means outside the body. As Dr. Vicken Sahakian explains, "Fertilization is the process of an egg and a sperm uniting to produce an embryo. In-vitro fertilization, simply put, is the process of taking eggs from the woman's body and sperm from the man and uniting them in a petri dish, in a laboratory. After the embryos have grown for several days, they are transplanted back into the woman's uterus."

IVF has become a popular route to motherhood for infertile women and nontraditional parents, such as lesbian couples. Carrie and Andrea are a perfect example. They had been together for a number of years and wanted a child of their own. From early on in their union, child rearing was a major topic of conversation.

Because Andrea had physical limitations that didn't permit her to carry a child, Carrie went through the medical process. Though they initially considered using the sperm of a mutual friend, they ultimately chose to go with an anonymous donor so as to avoid "dramas" down the line.

Twelve days after a lunch-hour trip to their doctor, Carrie and Andrea got the call. They were pregnant. And when all the waiting was done not only did they have one little girl, they had two.

Guests

Carrie and Andrea, couple
Dr. Vicken Sahakian, fertility specialist
Camille Paglia, author

'Honey, can you pick up some eggs?'

While IVF worked out well for Carrie and Andrea, many women can't bear children due to problems with, or lack of, eggs.

This is where Shelly Smith and the Los Angeles-based Egg Donor Program come in. Founded in the early 1990s, Smith's company helps infertile couples achieve their child-raising dreams via the vast selection of eggs "donated" by her stable of young, attractive, educated women.

The screening process to become a part of the donor program is quite rigorous; Smith estimates that only 15 percent of applicants are accepted.

Jessye Law became part of that select few in 2000. She became aware of IVF when she was going in for a checkup while pregnant with her daughter. A woman in the waiting room mentioned that she had become pregnant through IVF. When Jessye got home, she looked up IVF online. She was already pregnant and didn't need IVF, but "egg donation" caught her eye. She thought about how much childbirth and child rearing meant to her and her husband, and that she'd want another couple to enjoy parenthood.

Jessye and other egg donors are paid thousands of dollars -- sometimes tens of thousands of dollars -- for their eggs.

Guests

Shelly Smith, egg donor program
Jessye Law, egg donor
Dr. Art Caplan, bioethicist
Dr. Gregory Stock, genetic engineer

Ancient Chinese secret

The advancement of IVF has let millions of people become mothers and fathers, but it isn't guaranteed to succeed. Success rates are 28 percent per attempt (one cycle of treatment) for younger women, but only 8 percent per attempt in women between 39 and 43, and only 3 percent for women 44 and older.

Dr. Daoshing Ni has been involved with acupuncture and women's health for many years. He began shadowing his father as a boy, mixing herbs, assisting in reception, and eventually moving on to his own practice.

The major concepts of Western fertility treatment have been to increase the numbers of follicle counts, to control the cycle, and to thicken the uterine lining. The main difference in Eastern philosophy, Dr. Ni says, is a focus on quality as opposed to quantity.

The quality of the follicles, the lining, and a woman's health is very crucial to a successful pregnancy and labor.

Guests

Dr. Daoshing Ni, doctor of Chinese medicine
Teresa Earl, patient of Eastern fertility treatment

How far is too far?

Technology has definitely had a significant effect in helping barren women become mothers. Today, infertility is now a condition and not an affliction.

"Life is all about living and having and creating life," Dr. Panos Zavos says. "And we're helping only those that are unable to have children and, therefore, I think we are doing a tremendous effort."

But the drawbacks to modern fertility techniques are beginning to surface. Modern science is good, but it can't measure up to the complexity of nature.

Dr. Geoffrey Miller says, "A human male ejaculates 100 million sperm during a copulation. The best, fastest, healthiest sperm makes it to the egg. When you do IVFs, you eliminate a lot of that sperm competition. So you're not necessarily getting the best genes in the way that you would if you had a natural fertilization."

And there's the ethical angle. Being able to choose a blond-hair, green-eye boy with a killer jump shot and Beethoven-like musical talents lends itself to preferred selection as opposed to natural selection.

Guests

Dr. Panos Zavos, fertility expert
Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist
Dr. C.J. Scheiner, professor of erotology