AMNIOCENTESIS AND TEST TUBE BABY

AMNIOCENTESIS:
Amniocentesis is a technique by means of which small amount of amniotic fluid is taken out from the mothers womb at a very early stage of foetal development.The foetal cells obtained from this fluid are used for detecting any chromosomal abnormalities or metabolic disorder.
The amniotic fluid surrounds the foetus in the uterus.A sample of this fluid is taken out from the mothers womb with the help of surgical needle passed through abdominal wall.The fluid is then centrifuged to throw down the foetal cells.The foetal cells obtained from this fluid are cultured under test tube condition.Now,the foetal cells are analysed in two ways:

1)KARYOTYPE ANALYSIS:
the cultured foetal cells are analyzed from chromosomal abnormalities in growing embryo.It is also useful to find out the sex of developing baby.
2)BIOCHEMICAL TEST:
It detects the presence or absence of certain enzyme or other metabolic features.
If the baby is suffering from a serious,incurable,congenital defect,the pregnancy can be terminated.But this useful technique has been widely misused,so as to abort female baby.Hence,this technique has been banned and there is no more legal right to adopt the technique.

TEST TUBE BABY:
Test tube baby is a technique concerned to woman who is not able to conceive to give birth to a normal baby.Test tube baby are not developed inside test tube as the name points out.The term test tube refers to in vitro or in glass where fertilization of eggs by sperms is carried out.This technology is called In vitro Fertilization(IVF) technology.The term IVF refers to the fact of fertilization of the egg by sperm in glass ware.
IVF technology was pioneered in humans by Prof. Robert Winston.The same technique was used by Patrick Step toe and Robert Edward(England)to produce world's first test tube female baby,Louise Jay Brown on July 25,1975.Since then more than 25000 babies have been produced.
IVF TECHNOLOGY INVOLVES:
1)Taking out the eggs from ovaries of a female.
2)Culture of eggs in vitro in an incubator for maturation.
3)Fertilization of eggs in test tubes by semen obtained from male.
The gametes take 12-15 hours to fertilize.After fertilization,the zygote is kept in another fluid at body temperature.When embryo reaches the 32 celled stage,it is implanted into the uterus of another female which serves as host animal or surrogate mothers.These are used only to serve as host incubator and to deliver offspring after normal pregnancy period.This results in birth of normal baby.Such baby is called test tube baby.The surrogate mothers do not contribute anything in terms of genetic make up since egg comes from the donor mother and semen from the donor father.

ADVANTAGE:
i)It is great achievement in medical science.
ii)Test tube baby is boon to childless couple.
iii)It is useful to those woman who are unable to conceive normally.

DISADVANTAGE:
i)the fact that ovum does not belong to surrogate mother but she gives birth to the child.
ii)It has raise ethical and legal problems such as right over child.
iii)Muslim countries like Malaysia beleive the sperm donation as immoral.Children borne of donated sperms are considered illegitimate.

Fact:In Nepal,Om Tamang was the first test tube baby developed in Om Hospital.