Medical technologies that disassociate sexual intercourse from reproduction plunge physicians into the age-old maelstrom surrounding legitimacy, fidelity, and heritage. Except for introducing ambiguity into maternity as well as paternity, medical technology has transformed old problems more than it has created new ones. The transformation has been to substitute medical technology for sexual intercourse. The medicalization of reproduction allows the participants to escape from the religious and social opprobrium that defined acceptable reproductive choices. This disassociation from traditional religious values and legal rules poses grave ethical and legal questions about the use of certain reproductive technologies. The problems of adoption are better understood, but they have also been complicated by reproductive technologies that confuse the problem of determining whose parental rights control the adoption. This section presents a basic legal framework for analyzing the issues arising from reproductive technologies.