Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas In Assisted Reproduction

Ethical dilemmas are more common in assisted reproduction than in any other area of medicine. Providing a framework for discussing and articulating to patients the topical issues in assisted reproduction, this text examines the ever-changing interaction between ethics, society, and scientific advances in the area. This third volume of ethical debates includes chapters on assisted reproduction for parents with HIV and Hep-C, posthumous reproduction and non-Christian religious ethics in relation to assisted reproduction.

Explores the moral choices of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically-assisted reproduction and highlights the social norms that can distort decision-making.

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.

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.

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.

Begins by identifying the basic objections that have been raised to reproductive technology by the Catholic Church and others and shows why many of these criticisms are misplaced. This book argues that critics of reproductive technology have too frequently assumed that genetic connection is the sole basis of parental obligation.

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.

With contributions from: Eric Blyth, Ken Daniels, Julia Feast, Robert Lee, Nina Martin, Alexina McWhinnie, Derek Morgan, Clare Murray, Sharon Pettle, Claire Potter, Jim Richards and Francoise Shenfield The separation of procreation from conception has broadened notions of parenthood and created novel dilemmas. A woman may carry a foetus derived from gametes neither or only one of which came from her or her partner; or she may carry a foetus created using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the purpose of handing it to two other parents one, neither or both of whom may be genetically related to the prospective child. Parents may consist of single-sex couples, only one of them genetically related to the child; the prospective mother may be past her menopause; and genetic parenthood after death is now achievable. In a world increasingly reliant on medical science, how can the argument that equates traditional with natural and novel with unnatural/unethical be justified? Should there be legislation, which is notoriously slow to change, in a field driven by dazzling new possibilities at ever faster rate; particularly when restrictions differ from country to country, so that those who can afford it travel elsewhere for their treatment of choice? Whose rights are paramount - the adults hoping to build a family or the prospective child(ren)s future well being? On what basis can apparently competing rights be regulated or adjudicated and how and to what extent can these be enforced in practice?