chapter 1 Overview of early human preimplantation development in vitro -- chapter 2 Metabolic requirements during preimplantation -- chapter 3 Human morulae in vitro -- chapter 4 Cell allocation and differentiation -- chapter 5 Human blastocysts in vitro -- chapter 6 Preembryo selection and blastocyst quality: how to choose the optimal conceptus for transfer -- chapter 7 Blastocyst hatching -- chapter 8 Blastocyst cryopreservation and thawing -- chapter 9 Cell death (apoptosis) in human blastocysts / chapter 10 Human implantation / chapter 11 Human embryonic stem cells / chapter 12 The mammalian blastocyst as an experimental model / chapter 13 The moral status of the human blastocyst