Lost and Gained

My dad sent me an article about a robotic tool used in IVF called Aura. It can choose the best sperm and aid fertilization. It automates 205 steps, from retrieval to freezing.

Sounds amazing, right?

Though there is this: “None of the studies — which include a first-of-its-kind trial in 2023 by Overture and a 2024 study by Conceivable — has demonstrated that AI-enabled machines are markedly outperforming conventional IVF, though researchers have found that the software can excel at key parts of the process, such as picking healthy sperm.”

So not better. Just different.

I stopped reading the article at some point because it made me sad. On one hand, if the technology gets better and it’s able to shave time and money off the process, I would probably opt to use it. Cycles are brutal. Who wants to add time or cost to the situation?

And at the same time, I felt so removed from the process when I was lying on the table. Surgery is not natural, so it follows that we may have fewer emotional reservations about robotic surgery. Creating a child is natural, so it follows that we may have many feelings around needing assistance. It was one thing to have another human (or many other humans) involved. It’s another to have a robot — something completely unnatural — being a team member. It really turns it into a clinical process, more than it is with humans involved.

I didn’t know how to feel about it. Was it a loss? A gain? Something that is both a loss and a gain? It needs its own word.