Artificial insemination
pregnancy through in vivo fertilization
Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into the cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment for humans, and is a common practice in animal breeding, including cattle (see frozen bovine semen) and pigs.
Artificial insemination may employ assisted reproductive technology, sperm donation and animal husbandry techniques. Artificial insemination techniques available include intracervical insemination (ICI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI). Where gametes from a third party are used, the procedure may be known as 'assisted insemination'.
Humans
History
The first recorded case of artificial insemination was by Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1784, who performed it on a dog. It was followed in 1790 by John Hunter, who helped impregnate a linen draper's wife. The first reported case of artificial insemination by donor occurred in 1884: William H. Pancoast, a professor in Philadelphia, took sperm from his "best looking" student to inseminate an anesthetized woman without her knowledge. The case was reported 25 years later in a medical journal. The sperm bank was developed in Iowa starting in the 1950s in research conducted by University of Iowa medical school researchers Jerome K. Sherman and Raymond Bunge.
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This entry incorporates text from “Artificial insemination” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.