Where do babies come from

Prepared by: Group 6

Artificial Reproduction
A number of people are not medically capable of giving birth to a
child. Assisted reproductive technologies such as

fertility-enhancing drugs

in vitro fertilization

Babies
6000 600

sperm injection

These can be used to circumvent fertility problems.

41000

IVF
Rented Wombs

Donated Eggs

A market for babies

Artificial reproduction has until now only been used for the treatment
of infertility or prevention of genetic disease. However there is an
increasing number of new uses:
1)

to enable HIV positive women to have a child;

2)

for HIV discordant couples where the male partner is HIV positive;

3)

to enable gay couples or single women;

4)

freezing eggs and embryos for lifestyle reasons.

A market is created out of demand.

Amount paid for babies

70000
59000

60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0

25000
15000

12400
3500

4500

300

Column2

2500

MARKET SIZE
Small group of potential
customers

5.4 2.25 0.83

FERTILE
MEDICAL
ASSISTANCE
FERTILITY DRUGS
AI
IVF

Lack of confidence due to

non-regulation
Market at embryonic stage
Moral issues related to the
industry

0.1

85

DEMAND CHARECTERISTICS
Rigid Demand replicating
features of a necessity
Very few market players
No regulation
Bargaining power of buyers
meager
High-End customers ready to
pay

LEGAL COMPLEXITIES
Lack of Property Rights
No point of responsibility between
parents and fertility clinics
Lackadaisical attitude of political
leaders
Helpless courts in absence of legal
guidelines
Ex. If an infant has three
potential mothers(the egg donor, the
surrogate mother, and the intended
mother) how does a court decide
whom to favor.

How to organize the market?

Semblance of property rights

Right to create embryos

Right to dispose off embryos

Right to implant embryos

Right to exchange embryos

Greater regulation of fertility clinics

Gaining experience from personal computers and DVD

players market

Conclusion
A

baby business governed by a system of property rights is a vital

intermediate step.

Society

needs to decide how much control parents can exert over

their childs conception and genetic makeup and what part of the
conception society should pay for.

The

way forward is to support the industry by removing the

ambiguity from the system.

The

price should be left to be determined by free forces of Demand

and Supply.