The Islamically Correct Test-Tube Baby

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The notion of lineage is so strong that what seems like the next best idea in Western culture - adoption - makes relatively little sense in the Islamic world, said Inhorn.

Inhorn explained that an adopted child is "really like a stranger in your family; you can love it and treat it very well and the Qur'an encourages this," she said, but the scriptures don't allow legal adoption as it is practiced in the West. The child keeps its given name and does not inherit anything from the family.

More recently, however, the minority Shi'a sect of Islam broke away from the traditional party line of the dominant Sunni religion. Though they also conceive of adoption in the same terms as other Muslims, Shiites were given more options by a fatwa handed down in the late 1990s by Iran's Supreme Jurisprudent Ayatollah Ali Hussein Khamanei.

Khamanei effectively opened up the possibility for donors to be used in cases of extreme infertility, said Inhorn, as long as both parties "abide by the religious codes regarding parenting."

Despite the fact that there are many donation stipulations and that a child born from the gametes of both parents is the gold standard, Inhorn said in her lecture that Muslims often view donor technology as a "marriage savior, helping to avoid the marital and psychological disputes that may arise if the couple's case is otherwise untreatable."

Still, the most prominent hurdle to IVF and other fertility treatments is not necessarily religious guidelines, but the procedures' high costs. In fertility clinics in Egypt, a single IVF procedure can cost up to $3,000, making it difficult for even the wealthiest Middle Easterners to use the biotechnology.

New research in Science magazine that highlighted the potential for women to produce new eggs throughout their lifetime could, in the future, provide a low-cost alternative to IVF in the Middle East. Inhorn said that anything to avoid IVF would be "great."

Serour encouraged new technology providing that it results in "procreation within the frame of marriage."

Despite what some might view as constraints of Islam on reproduction, Inhorn said the Scriptures do encourage finding a solution to one's problems.

"Islam as a religion is very accommodating of science and biomedicine. There are certain mandates in the religion that say `Seek a solution to your suffering. Seek and I'll help you,'" Inhorn said. "In terms of infertility treatment, from the richest to the poorest, people will say `As a good Muslim, I'm encouraged to try.'"