per cycle nr is the number of motile sperm recommended for use in a cycles vv is the volume of the vials used (its value doesn't affect n and may be eliminated. in short, the smaller the vials, the more vials are used) approximate live birth rate (rs) among infertile couples as a function of total motile sperm count (nr). values are for intrauterine insemination. with these numbers, one sample would on average help giving rise to 0.1–0.6 children, that is, it actually takes on average 2–5 samples to make a child. for intrauterine insemination, a centrifugation fraction (fc) may be added to the equation: fc is the fraction of the volume that remains after centrifugation of the sample, which may be about half (0.5) to a third (0.33). n = v s × f c × c × r s n r \times f_\times c\times r_ on the other hand, only 5 million motile sperm may be needed per cycle with iui (nr=5 million) thus, only 1–3 samples may be needed for a child if used for iui. social implications one of the key issues arising from the rise of dependency on assisted reproductive technology (arts) is the pressure placed on couples to conceive, "where children are highly desired, parenthood is culturally mandatory, and childlessness socially unacceptable". the medicalization of infertility creates a framework in which individuals are encouraged to think of infertility quite negatively. in many cultures donor insemination is religiously and culturally prohibited, often meaning that less accessible "high tech" and expensive arts, like ivf, are the only solution. an over-reliance on reproductive technologies in dealing with infertility prevents many – especially, for example, in the "infertility belt" of central and southern africa – from dealing with many of the key causes of infertility treatable by artificial insemination techniques; namely preventable infections, dietary and lifestyle influences. if good records are not kept, the offspring when grown up risk accidental incest. legal restrictions some countries restrict artificial insemination in a variety of ways. for example, some countries do not permit ai for single women, and other countries do not permit the use of donor sperm. as of may 2013, the following european countries permit medically assisted ai for single women: belarus belgium britain bulgaria denmark estonia finland germany greece hungary iceland ireland latvia moldova montenegro netherlands north macedonia romania russia spain ukraine armenia cyprus law in the united states history of law around artificial insemination artificial insemination used to be seen as adultery and was illegal until the 1960s when states started recognizing the child born from artificial insemination as legitimate. once the children began to be recognized as legitimate, legal questions around who the parents of the child are, how to handle surrogacy, paternity rights, and eventually artificial insemination and lgbt+ parents began to arise. prior to the use of artificial insemination, the legal parents of a child were the two people who conceived the child or the person who birthed the child and their legal spouse, but artificial insemination complicates the legal process of becoming a parent as well as who is the parent of the child. deciding who the parents of the child are is the largest legal predicament around artificial insemination. however, questions around surrogacy and donor’s rights also appear as a side question to determining the parent(s). some major cases that deal with artificial insemination and parental rights are, k.m v e.g, johnson v calvert, matter of baby m, and in re k.m.h. legal parental relations and artificial insemination when children are conceived the traditional way, there is little discrepancy around who the legal parents of the child are. however, because children conceived using artificial insemination may not be genetically related to one or more of their parents, who the legal parents of the child are can come into question. prior to the passage of the uniform parentage act in 1973, children conceived via artificial insemination were deemed as “illegitimate” children. the uniform parentage act then recognized the children born from artificial insemination as legal and laid precedent for how the legal parents of the child were decided. however, this act only applied to the children of those married couples. it established that the person who birthed the child was the mother and the father would be the husband of the woman. in 2002, the uniform parentage act, which is adopted individually on a state by state basis, was revised to address non married couples and states that an unmarried couple has the same rights to the child that a married couple would. this extended who has the right to be a parent to a man who would supposedly fill in the social role as a “father.” there were now numerous ways to establish parental rights for both the mother and the father depending on if the child was born using a sperm donor or a surrogate. currently, a revised version of the uniform parentage act is starting to be passed in a few states that expands how parental relations can be determined. this bill includes expanding “father” to mean any person who would fill the role of a father, regardless of their gender and “mother” is expanded to anyone who gives birth to the child regardless of gender. in addition, this act would also change any language of “husband” or “wife” to “spouse.” paternity rights there is no federal law that applies to all fifty states when it comes to artificial insemination and paternity rights, but the uniform parentage act is a model which many states have adopted. under the 1973 upa, married heterosexual couples making use of artificial insemination through a licensed physician could list the husband as the natural father of the child, rather than the sperm donor. since then a revised version of the act has been introduced, though to less widespread adoption generally paternity is not an issue when artificial insemination is between a married woman and an anonymous donor.most states provide that anonymous donors' paternity claims are not recognized, and most sperm donation centers make use of contracts that require donors to sign away their paternity rights before they can participate. when the mother knows the donor, however, or engages in artificial insemination while unmarried, complications may arise. in cases of private sperm donation, paternity rights and responsibilities are often conferred onto sperm donors when: the donor and recipient did not comply with state laws regarding artificial insemination, the sperm donor and recipient know one another, or the donor had the intent of being a father to the child. when one or a number of these things is true, courts have at times found written agreements relinquishing parental rights to be unenforceable. opposition and criticism main article: religious response to assisted reproductive technology some theologically-buttressed arguments reject the moral validity of this practice, such as pope john xxiii. however, according to a document of the usccb, the intrauterine insemination (iui) of “licitly obtained” (normal intercourse with a silastic sheath i.e. a perforated condom) but technologically prepared semen sample (washed, etc.) has been neither approved nor disapproved by church authority and its moral validity remains under discussion. other animals a man performing artificial insemination of a cow. a breeding mount with built-in artificial vagina used in semen collection from horses for use in artificial insemination artificial insemination is used for pets, livestock, endangered species, and animals in zoos or marine parks difficult to transport. reasons and techniques it may be used for many reasons, including to allow a male to inseminate a much larger number of females, to allow the use of genetic material from males separated by distance or time, to overcome physical breeding difficulties, to control the paternity of offspring, to synchronize births, to avoid injury incurred during natural mating, and to avoid the need to keep a male at all (such as for small numbers of females or in species whose fertile males may be difficult to manage). artificial insemination is much more common than natural mating, as it allows several female animals to be impregnated from a single male. for instance, up to 30-40 female pigs can be impregnated from a single boar. workers collect the semen by masturbating the boars, then insert it into the sows via a raised catheter known as a pork stork. boars are still physically used to excite the females prior to insemination, but are prevented from actually mating. semen is collected, extended, then cooled or frozen. it can be used on-site or shipped to the female's location. if frozen, the small plastic tube holding the semen is referred to as a straw. to allow the sperm to remain viable during the time before and after it is frozen, the semen is mixed with a solution containing glycerol or other cryoprotectants. an extender is a solution that allows the semen from a donor to impregnate more females by making insemination possible with fewer sperm. antibiotics, such as streptomycin, are sometimes added to the sperm to control some bacterial venereal diseases. before the actual insemination, estrus may be induced through the use of progestogen and another hormone (usually pmsg or prostaglandin f2α). history artificial insemination tools brought from the ussr by luis thomasset in 1935 to work at cambridge laboratories and south america. the first viviparous animal to be artificially fertilized was a dog. the experiment was conducted with success by the italian lazzaro spallanzani in 1780. another pioneer was the russian ilya ivanov in 1899. in 1935, diluted semen from suffolk sheep was flown from cambridge in britain to kraków, poland, as part of an international research project. the participants included prawochenki (poland), milovanoff (ussr), hammond and walton (uk), and thomasset (uruguay). modern artificial insemination was pioneered by john o. almquist of pennsylvania state university. he improved breeding efficiency by the use of antibiotics (first proven with penicillin in 1946) to control bacterial growth, decreasing embryonic mortality, and increase fertility. this, and various new techniques for processing, freezing, and thawing of frozen semen significantly enhanced the practical utilization of artificial insemination in the livestock industry and earned him the 1981 wolf foundation prize in agriculture. many techniques developed by him have since been applied to other species, including humans. species artificial insemination is used in many non-human animals, including sheep, horses, cattle, pigs, dogs, pedigree animals generally, zoo animals, turkeys and creatures as tiny as honeybees and as massive as orcas (killer whales). artificial insemination of farm animals is common in the developed world, especially for breeding dairy cattle (75% of all inseminations). swine are also bred using this method (up to 85% of all inseminations). it is an economical means for a livestock breeder to improve their herds utilizing males having desirable traits. although common with cattle and swine, artificial insemination is not as widely practiced in the breeding of horses. a small number of equine associations in north america accept only horses that have been conceived by "natural cover" or "natural service" – the actual physical mating of a mare to a stallion – the jockey club being the most notable of these, as no artificial insemination is allowed in thoroughbred breeding. other registries such as the aqha and warmblood registries allow registration of foals created through artificial insemination, and the process is widely used allowing the breeding of mares to stallions not resident at the same facility – or even in the same country – through the use of transported frozen or cooled semen. in modern species conservation, semen collection and artificial insemination are used also in birds. in 2013 scientist of the justus-liebig-university of giessen, germany, from the working group of michael lierz, clinic for birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, developed a novel technique for semen collection and artificial insemination in parrots producing the world's first macaw by assisted reproduction. scientists working with captive orcas were able to pioneer the technique in the early 2000s, resulting in "the first successful conceptions, resulting in live offspring, using artificial insemination in any cetacean species". john hargrove, a seaworld trainer, describes kasatka as being the first orca to receive artificial insemination. violation of rights artificial insemination on animals has been criticised as a violation of animal rights, with animal rights advocates equating it with rape and arguing it constitutes institutionalized bestiality. artificial insemination of farm animals