The past three decades have witnessed significant advances in the field of assisted human conception. Following the remarkable perseverance and triumph of Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe, and Jean Purdy, numerous scientists and physicians from around the world have worked to develop more effective and safer procedures to treat infertile couples. Along with improvements in the areas of ovarian stimulation, embryo culture, and cryobiology, we have seen the introduction of assisted fertilization through intracytoplasmic sperm injection, the development of techniques to remove and perform genetic analysis on polar bodies or blastomeres, and the enhancement of methods for assessing the viability of the developing conceptus
