Describe the treatments available to help infertile couples have children.

The four other methods for infertile couple which both the partners play a part are Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer (GIFT), Zygote Intra-Fallopian Transfer (ZIFT), in Vitro (IVF) and the Pre-Implantation Diagnosis (PID).

GIFT involves the egg and sperm being placed into a fine tube. The tube is then inserted into the women's fallopian tube releasing the contents. Although there is scientific help for this sort of treatment, it is also seen as fertilisation taking place naturally since the egg and sperm meet after on.

ZIFT is the complete opposite of GIFT. This involves the egg and the sperm to fertilise outside the body. The fertilised egg is then inserted into the fallopian tube.

IVF is another alternative, where the woman's eggs are collected with the man's sperm in a dish at a laboratory. After fertilisation takes place, the fertilized egg is immediately incubated. Later on it would eventually have developed into a blast cyst of eight identical cells. Healthy blast cysts are inserted into the women's womb, but no more then 3 should be inserted as this could consequent in attaining quadruplets or quintuplets.

PID is an option that is only used by people who have genetic diseases or disorders. In this process, the doctor only picks out healthy and unaffected embryos and inserted into the woman while the rest are discarded

Explain the Christian attitudes and those of one other religion to those treatments

Most Christians believe that the treatments available for infertile couples are wrong. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the right to have and bring up a child is given only by God. Hence treatments, which are breaking the rules of God, are sins. The Roman Catholics believe that IVF is wrong because it involves fertilising several eggs some of which are thrown. Throwing away these eggs is seen as abortion and therefore wrong according to the Roman Catholics as they place high regards to the idea of the sanctity of life.

The sanctity of life teaches that life is a gift from God and so essentially belongs to God. There is an extract from the Surah 3:145 explaining this teaching; "Nor can a soul die except by God's leave, the term being fixed as by writing

Masturbation is seen as a sin for Catholics and hence if a man were to be masturbating for artificial insemination and surrogacy it would still be viewed as a sin. Also Catholics believe that God intended procreation to be a part of the sex act and so all forms of embryo technology and solutions don't include the sex act.

Other Christian churches allow IVF and AIH. These Christians believe that new technology and solutions that are made to provide infertile couples with the joy of children and so it is good. Also, as the egg and the sperm are from the actual going to be parents it is acceptable. This teaching is based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They teach that as long as the technique involves both parents and no intrusion of any other person it is tolerable however still morally unacceptable.

"...the intrusion of a person other that the couple... are gravely immoral... Techniques involving only the married couple... are perhaps less reprehensible yet remain morally unacceptable." - Catechism of the Catholic Church

Explain why religious people may have problems with transplant surgery.

Religious people may have various reasons for having transplant surgery. Some Christians dislike the idea of any form of transplant surgery. One of the Christian teachings is that the body is created by God and so should not be interfered with. Interfering with the life and its ways is ignoring the sanctity of life. The sanctity of life is a view followed by almost all religions. As mentioned before this is a basic belief that teaches all life is a gift from God and so thus belongs to God.

Transplanting organs from the dead into the living is usurping the role of God, and no one has the right to act as God. Some Christians also believe that organs should not be paid for because the Bible states in many places that to exploit the poor is wrong. Hence paying for organs is disagreeing with the Bible

Christians also agree with the non-religious arguments against transplant surgery. Heart transplants can cause much dispute and anger as for the heart to be used as a transplant needs to be removed before the heart stops beating. In other words the person who is giving up their heart would still have to be alive to give it up for use. Islam is another religion that has much strong opposition towards transplant surgery. There main argument is that the Shari'ah teaches that nothing should be removed from the body after death and thus the organs of dead Muslims should not be removed. To take a part from one body to be a replacement for another body is wrong. By doing this, the Qur'an says that it is acting like God, which is the greatest sin of Islam. This sin is referred to as 'shirk'.

Some Hindus are opposed to any form of transplant surgery. They share the same beliefs as Christians and Muslims, which is that transplant surgery is breaking the sanctity of life and usurps the position of God. Further reasons for why they are against it, is because they are firm believers of 'ahimsa', non-violence. Hindus regard another's organs taken out for another as a violent and unjustifiable thing to do.

Hindus also believe that transplant surgery breaks their law of karma. They believe that transplant surgery is helping to cure someone who is meant to suffer because of the bad things they did in their previous or present life. By getting a transplant or an alteration, they are avoiding the punishment given by God, which only makes it worse for them.

Some of the opposing Hindus may also have concerns regarding the poor. They believe that poor people might exploit themselves by selling their organs in order to receive some money to survive on for themselves or to provide for their family.