Achieving pregnancy with the help of a third party to provide any of: the spermatozoa (see donor insemination); the oocytes (egg donation); or the uterus (surrogacy: see gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy). Current issues surround the question of whether or not to inform the child of his or her origins, whether the donor or surrogate should be anonymous or take some part in the child's upbringing, exploitation and autonomy, and (in the case of sperm donation) access to sperm banks by women not in a heterosexual relationship with a sterile man.

A form of collaborative reproduction comparable in some ways to sperm donation (see donor insemination), but different in that eggs for donation are much harder to obtain physically than ejaculated sperm are; generally the egg donor undergoes all the steps needed for in vitro fertilisation up to the stage of egg retrieval.

A set of principles and values that govern behavior to accord with a notion of morality. See especially deontological ethics, teleological ethics and utilitarian ethics, and also see autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and suffering. The ethics of assisted reproductive technology, collaborative reproduction, the doctor-patient relationship, informed consent and human embryo research are much debated.

A form of collaborative reproduction in which the woman who is the surrogate for the intended pregnancy receives embryos from the commissioning infertile couple, who have undergone in vitro fertilisation, then, by becoming pregnant, carries (or 'gestates') the pregnancy, gives birth, and then gives up the baby to the baby's genetic parents. In principle the practice can be done for altruistic or commercial reasons.