Human Embryology - Documentaries

The Fertility Business: Four Reports on IVF Treatment
BBC1 (UK)—22 April 2002, 19.30 hrs
John Stapleton looks at IVF provision in Britain, and Sophie Raworth investigates British women who are selling their eggs in America. The documentary also includes a look at the reasons behind the relationship between the location in which persons live and their chances of having a child through fertility treatment and the clinics where prospective parents can choose their baby's sex.

Life and Death in the 21st Century. Pt.3, Designer Babies
BBC 1(UK)—7 April 1999, 22:20 hrs, 50 min
It is already possible to select the sex of a prospective child - but how much power should parents have over the genetic make-up of their offspring? Implanting genes is a prospect that may become a reality in a few years and must be considered now. Gene implantation could correct genetic diseases at the embryonic stage but once this is done, it will be in demand for reasons other than the screening out of serious diseases.

The Baby Business
BBC2 (UK)—27 November 2002, 19.30 hrs
An investigation into the fertility industry and the commercial pressures on it. Critics claim that some clinics try to do well in league tables, in the process creating more twins and triplets with a higher likelihood of disability. Reporter Virginia Eastman meets an IVF mother who gave birth to a child with cerebral palsy, and asks whether the experts are putting profits first.

Making Babies the Gay Way 
Channel 4 (UK)—22 January 2004; 29 January 2004
Technological advances, together with changes in the law and social attitudes, mean that more and more gay and lesbian couples are finding a way to have a family. This film follows four couples through the trials and tribulations of trying to make babies: from attempted conception to the mayhem of life with children. So what does having a baby mean in practical and legal terms for a homosexual couple? How will the extended family cope with the new family dynamic? And is society really ready to accept gay parents?

Frozen Angels
Directors:  Frauke Sandig, Eric Black
Country of origin and year:Germany/USA, 2005
Frozen Angels follows the personal stories and perspectives of the intelligent blonde college students donating eggs, the surrogate mums and the waiting parents, challenging everyone's moral code along the way. One sperm donor could potentially father hundreds of children in the same city – what if two were to fall in love? With blonde blue-eyed Californian designer babies de rigueur, are we heading towards genetic imperialism?
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436334/

A Child Against All Odds
BBC One (UK)— Series of 6 programmes from 14 November 2006, 21.00 hrs, 60 min
This new BBC series follows the emotional stories of patients undergoing fertility treatment and the science that makes parenthood possible for people affected by infertility. Topics include PGD, egg and embryo freezing, older mothers, egg sharing, repeated IVF and sperm retrieval after accidents and illness.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/fertility/achildagainstallodds_index.shtml

The World's Oldest Mums
Channel 4 (UK)—23 July 2009, 21.00 hrs, 60 min
Cutting Edge travels the world to meet four women who - long after the menopause prevented them from getting pregnant the old-fashioned way - have chosen to use fertility technology to have babies. Documentary on Elizabeth Adeney, a 66 year-old woman who went to the Ukraine for fertility treatment and then gave birth to a son, and four other women of similar ages who have followed in her footsteps. The film considers the ethical issues such a course of action raises and also the rights of the soon-to-be orphaned children.

Lines That Divide
Producers: Jack Hafer, Jennifer Lahl, Brian Godawa
Country of origin and year: USA, 2009
A documentary intended to clarify, summarize and confirm scientific basics of the stem cell research debate and key conflicting moral concerns in the US.  Stem cell research funding proponents argue that it is a moral duty to pursue scientific progress intended to provide healing hope for humanity. Opponents argue that the ends do not justify the means in creating and destroying some human life to save that of others. The film seeks an answer to the question, "Is stem cell research a potential miracle cure for diseases or a form of macabre biological perversion?"  The film also highlights the often overlooked breakthroughs which are being made with adult stem-cell therapy.
http://linesthatdivide.com/

8 Boys and Wanting a Girl
Channel 4 (UK)—Sunday 01 May 2010, 03.05 hrs
This documentary follows women who suffer from the psychological condition of 'gender disappointment', including the mother of eight sons who is desperate to have a daughter.

Having a Baby to Save My Child
BBC1 (UK)—Tuesday 16th February 2010, 22.35 hrs
David and Samantha McDowell are fighting for the right to have a "saviour sibling" treatment to help their two year old son, Alex, who has Fanconi Anaemia, a genetic disorder that causes bone marrow failure and predisposes to cancer. The couple want to try IVF treatment to have a new baby who will be a perfect tissue match, and therefore a perfect donor, for Alex.

Test Tube Miracle? 
BBC2 (UK)—13 April 2001, 03:00 hrs—Friday 7 September 2001, 01:00 hrs
This late night/early morning program looks at Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection, where sperm is forced into the egg through laboratory procedures. The film suggests that it is 'seemingly breaking all the rules of evolution'. So what is the cost of making babies?

Watchdog Healthcheck
 BBC1 (UK)—31 January 2002, 21.10 hrs
Gaby Roslin and David Bull turn their attentions to the increasing use of technology surrounding human reproduction, which can already allow couples to choose the sex of their baby.

Perfect Babies
Channel 5 (UK)—12 January, 1999, 20.00 hrs, 60 min
Part one looks at the manner in which parents are being offered the chance to alter the genetic makeup of their unborn child.

The Nine Months That Made You
BBC Horizon investigates whether the nine months you spend in the womb could affect your lifetime health and happiness.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013ywz4

Baby Makers: The Fertility Clinic
The BBC's hour-long documentary 'The Baby Makers: The Fertility Clinic' follows the ups and downs of both patients and staff at one of Britain's largest fertility centres - the Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ps8yc

Future Baby
In 'Future Baby', the Austrian documentary film-maker Maria Arlamovsky journeys around the world, investigating the state of reproductive treatment. The film asks a single question: how far should we go? Arlamovsky tells stories about reproduction that only a generation ago would have sounded like science fiction – women without uteruses giving birth; sperm donors from South Africa matched online with surrogate mothers in India; screening for congenital disorders performed in embryos.

Inside Britain’s Fertility Business
BBC1 Monday 28 November 2016
Reporter Deborah Cohen investigates how some fertility clinics sell expensive add-on treatments despite limited evidence that they improve the chances of having a baby.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084ngkd