Books In Brief Ethics Of Assisted Reproductive Medicine

This book evaluates some of the most common ethical issues confronted by reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists, and their teams. The authors apply core ethical principles and approaches to problem solving to each of the cases raised. This work is a guide for both those on the front lines of patient care as well as for students in the field, whatever their background. By outlining sample cases, the book is an instigator for ethical discussions among ethicists, medical practitioners and students.

Ethics of Assisted Reproductive Medicine compares and contrasts Western and Islamic models of bioethics to make the case that the Islamic perspective (taken from the Qur’an and the Sunnah) provides a viable and clear alternative that goes beyond the dominance of the secular and its various philosophical bases, to give Revelation and spiritual understanding precedence. Human cloning, surrogacy, and IVF, are some of the more hotly contested topics. The author analyzes these rigorously and objectively, addressing the perspectives of both the secular Western and Islamic models, and fundamentally how each has chosen to framework its own understanding of the issues at hand. In discussing these issues, keeping to principles, the author charts the way out of a confused circle of opinion that is making it very hard to decide “what is best”.

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) include the artificial or partially artificial methods to achieve pregnancy. These new technologies lead to substantial changes regarding of ethical and legal aspects in reproductive medicine. The book focuses on current hot topics about ethical dilemmas in ART, e.g. about the duties of ethical committees, guidelines regarding informed consent, ethical and legal aspects of sperm donation, embryo donation, ethics of embryonic stem cells, therapeutical cloning, patenting of human genes, commercialization.

Intimate and medicalized, natural and technological, reproduction poses some of the most challenging ethical dilemmas of our time. This volume brings together scholars from multiple perspectives to address both traditional and novel questions about the rights and responsibilities of human reproducers, their caregivers, and the societies in which they live.

Bioethics has developed over the last few decades into a major field of inquiry. With advances in medicine progressively transforming our understanding of what constitutes life, there is need for a medical ethics to address many of the issues and challenges arising, particularly in the fields of genetics and reproduction. Of central significance are serious moral dilemmas confronting medical experts which require a theological perspective. Yet it is secular bioethics that is defining what constitutes human life and it is secular bioethics that is influencing policy on matters which concern us all and are likely to have grave societal impact. Is it right for a woman to act as surrogate for her sister? Or for a childless couple to resort to artificial insemination by donor? What does Islam have to say?

Arthur L. Caplan It is commonly said, especially when the subject is assisted reproduction, that medical technology has out stripped our morality. Yet, as the essays in this volume make clear, that is not an accurate assessment of the situ ation. Medical technology has not overwhelmed our moral ity. It would be more accurate to say that our society has not yet achieved consensus about the complex ethical iss ues that arise when medicine tries to assist those who seek its services in order to reproduce. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of ethical opinion about what we ought to do with respect to the use of surrogate mothers, in vitro fertil ization, embryo transfer, artificial insemination, or fertil ity drugs. Nor is it entirely accurate to describe assisted repro duction as technology. The term "technology" carries with it connotations of machines buzzing and technicians scurrying about trying to control a vast array of equip ment. Yet, most of the methods used to assist reproduc tion that are discussed in this volume do not involve exotic technologies or complicated hardware. It is technique, more than technology, that dominates the field of assisted reproduction. Efforts to help the infertile by means of the manipu lation of human reproductive materials and organs date 1 2 Caplan back at least to Biblical times. Human beings have en gaged in all manner of sexual practices and manipulations in attempts to achieve reproduction when nature has balked at allowing life to begin.

Reproductive health care professionals in fields such as Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics face difficult ethical issues because they work at the crossroads of patient decision-making, scientific advancement, political controversy, legal regulation, and profound moral considerations. The dilemmas these professionals face expose big-picture bioethics questions of interest to everyone. Yet for clinicians striving to deliver excellent patient care, the ethical questions that make daily practice challenging can be just as nuanced. This volume presents a carefully curated compilation of essays written by leading experts in the fields of medicine, ethics, and law, who address key issues at the forefront of reproductive ethics. It is organized into three main sections: I. Contraception and Abortion Ethics - Preventing Pregnancy and Birth, II. Assisted Reproduction Ethics - Initiating Pregnancy, and III. Obstetric Ethics - Managing Pregnancy and Delivery. Each section begins with a short introduction by the editors providing an overview of the area and contextualizing the essays that follow. This volume's primary aim is to be useful to practicing clinicians, students, and trainees by providing short and practical essays covering urgent topics--from race, religion and abortion, to legal liability, violations of confidentiality and maternal choices that risk future children's health. This collection provides clinicians at all levels of training with frameworks they need to approach the intimate and high-stakes encounters central to their profession.