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Assisted reproductive technology (ART) generally involves the application of laboratory or clinical technology to gametes (human egg or sperm) and/or embryos for the purposes of reproduction to assist people to have children. ART often includes a woman taking fertility medication to increase the likelihood of falling pregnant and may include techniques such as artificial insemination (AI),1 in vitro fertilisation (IVF),2 gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT),3 zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT),4 and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).5 Donor sperm, eggs or embryos may be used in some circumstances. In addition, ART may in certain circumstances utilise increased understanding of human genetics in the application of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select particular embryos for implantation. More recently emerging research and technology has led to children being born as a result of 'three person' IVF to avoid mitochondrial disease, and discussion that ART may involve a future in which genome editing may be possible.

The introduction notes that the quest to understand and/or cure infertility has existed, across cultures, for centuries. However, although people lamented infertility for centuries – and there were many rituals, practices and prayers to gods of fertility aimed to increase the chances of becoming pregnant – little was understood about how conception and reproduction occurred. Little progress was made in finding a ‘cure’ until the latter part of the seventeenth century, when Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was able to observe spermatozoa for the first time under a microscope. Leeuwenhoek’s groundbreaking observations in 1677 were followed by further experimentation and speculation about human reproduction, signaling a significant development in both understanding infertility and creating technologies that could assist conception.