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Third party reproduction refers to a process where another person provides sperm or eggs or where another woman provides her uterus so that a woman can have a child. Thus the reproductive process goes beyond the traditional father-mother model. However, the third party's involvement is limited to the reproductive process and does not extend into the raising of the child. One can separate:

1. Sperm donation. A third party provides sperm that can be used for insemination of the future mother.
2. Ovum donation. An egg donor provides ova for fertilization in the IVF process. The embryo is placed into the uterus of the future mother (embryo transfer).
3. Gestational carrier. A woman carries a baby through the pregnancy for another person. This involves the use of IVF as the embryo is implanted by embryo transfer.

Thus a child can have a genetic and social (non-genetic, non-biologic) father, and a genetic, gestational , and social (non-biologic) mother, and any combinations thereof. Theoretically a child thus could have 5 parents.

Surrogacy is a term that is not yet well defined. In a wider sense it includes all situations where a surrogate carries a pregnancy for another person and thus includes the gestational carrier situation. Recently, there has been a tendency to separate the gestational carrier situation from the "true" surrogate restricting the term for a woman who provides a combination of ovum donation and gestational carrier services.^{[citation needed]} In a typical situation a surrogate is inseminated, conceives, and hands over the baby at the completion of the pregnancy. A famous case involving paternity rights and surrogacy is the Baby M case.

• National Gamete Donation Trust (UK donor recruitment charity, advising donors and intending parents on donation issues)
• UK Donorlink (UK Voluntary Information Exchange and Contact Register for donors and donor-conceived people)
• Baby M
• Mothers Via Egg Donation
• The Portland Center For Reproductive Medicine