7) Ethical Issues of Human Reproductive Technology

• Moral aspects of human reproduction include genetic counseling, cloning for reproduction, stem cell research, and sex selection: ethical or unethical?
• Marriage of Homosexuals is a moral aspect of human reproduction.
• Human reproduction is a complex and controversial field of ethics.
• Reproductive freedom is the freedom to decide whether or not to have children.
• Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.
• Reproduction is the process by which living beings transmit their genes and give birth to a new generation of living beings.
• PGD involves polar bodies present in female embryos so they can be selected for.
• An all-or-nothing approach should be adopted in some cases, such as when there are medical conditions of the mother, family history of genetic diseases, or simply the wishes of the parents.
• PGD involves analyzing DNA sequence in sections of DNA that code for conditions in a single gene.
• PGD can identify over 50 genetic disorders.
• Other technologies allow for detection of extra or missing chromosomes in PGD.
• PGD involves undergoing normal IVF treatment to collect and fertilize the eggs, growing the embryo in the lab for two-three days until the cells have divided and consists of around eight cells, removing one or two of the cells from the embryo, testing the cells to see if the embryo contains the gene that causes the genetic condition in the family, and transferring embryos unaffected by the condition to the womb to allow them to develop.
• The act or process of reproducing is specifically the process by which humans give rise to offspring and which fundamentally consists of the segregation of a portion of the parental body by a sexual or an asexual process and its subsequent growth and differentiation into a new individual.
• Men and women have the right to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice.
• Contraception, also known as term birth control, was introduced by Margaret Sanger in 1914.
• Contraception prevents pregnancy by interfering with the normal process of ovulation, fertilization, and implantation.
• Contraception encourages illicit sexual activity.
• The ethical problem in abortion is when, if ever, is an abortion the right alternative (comparative rights)?
• The key question in abortion is when does human personhood start, and how do we proceed when there is no consensus?
• Sterilization is an irreversible medical procedure that renders an individual incapable of sexual reproduction and with profound physical and psychological effects.
• Beliefs of religious groups include the Roman Catholic Church, which holds that abortion is a grave sin and should be illegal, and Jewish and Muslim beliefs, which allow for abortion under certain circumstances.
• If the pregnant woman’s life is at risk, then, arguably, abortion could be viewed as the lesser of two evils.
• Contraception reduces potential harm for maternal and child health by preventing unwanted pregnancies and pregnancies that are too closely spaced as well as adverse effects on mental health and social wellbeing of women due to these events.
• Types of sterilization include voluntary sterilization, which is a form of birth control wanted by a person, forced sterilization, when a person is sterilized after expressly refusing the procedure, and coerced sterilization, when financial or other incentives, misinformation, or intimidation tactics are used to compel an individual to undergo the procedure.
• Abortion continues to raise a number of ethical issues related to the rights of the women versus the rights of the fetus, which, in addition to the risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) including the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), emphasize the need for adequate family planning and sexual education.
• Major forms of contraception include barrier methods (condom or sheath), hormonal contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (coil), and male or female sterilization.
• Arguments against contraception include the belief that it artificially interrupts the natural process of conception.
• Anyone with a sound mind should be allowed, with his/her informed consent, to enter freely into a contractual agreement.
• Gestation can be regarded as a service close to baby sitting or rearing a child for someone else.
• The Principle of Double Effect could be applied to abortion, as the intent of the abortion would be to preserve the life of the woman, and the death of the fetus would be a secondary consequence of this attempt.
• People have the right to procreation and to have a family.
• In vitro fertilization (IVF) is used to create embryos with the wife's eggs and husband's sperm, which are then transferred to the uterus of the surrogate mother.
• Infertility is clinically accepted as the inability to conceive after 12 (24) months of actively trying to conceive.
• If the baby has no genetic ties with the commissioning parents, why not adoption?
• This can protect the best interests of the child.
• Surrogate motherhood is a situation where a woman agrees to bear a child for another woman with the intention of handing over the child to someone else after the birth (intended parents).
• If the procedure succeeds, the baby will be the biological child of both husband and wife.
• Ethical considerations on abortion include questions with controversial answers, such as: Is a fetus a person with rights? Has the unborn child the right to life? Does the woman have ethical obligations to the fetus? Does the woman have the right to decide for termination of the pregnancy? Is it ethical to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term? Is sexual activity ethical if it can lead to an abortion? Does the woman have ethical obligations to the father?
• Human reproductive technology (HRTs) is a medical intervention developed to improve an 'infertile' couple's chance of pregnancy.
• Human reproductive technologies (HRTs) include artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogacy, and new genetics.