Over the last few years there have been court battles involving frozen embryos, frozen sperm and frozen eggs. One of the most recent cases is Sofia Vergara and Nick Loeb’s publicized battle over the frozen embryos that they created together in 2013. The decision was made to create the embryos due to Sofia’s age and Nick’s desire to have children. They realized how sophisticated science had become and decided to use the scientific knowledge to their advantage. When they were ready, they would have children together. However, they went their separate ways and a lengthy court battle still pursues on who should have the frozen embryos. Whether it is frozen embryos, frozen sperm or frozen eggs the ethical and legal battle will continue for decades as to whom should retain ownership and make decisions regarding the frozen material. This frozen material at some point has to be removed from the human body and in the case of frozen sperm, sometimes the sperm is collected post-mortem. Post mortem sperm retrieval (PMSR) is the collection of sperm after a male individual has past away. In 1980, the first successful post mortem collection was performed on a 30-year old man who was brain dead after a motor vehicle accident (Strong 739). For sperm preservation to occur the family must be able to convince medical personnel, particularly the hospital’s ethical committee, that that the donor wanted to have children at some point in his life, as the United States has no laws regarding PMSR.
Mr. Szafranski is appealing a decision made by the Circuit Court of Cook County in which the court sided with ex-girlfriend Karla Dunston concerning a dispute over the disposition of cryopreserved pre-embryos that were created when Mr. Szafranki donated his sperm and Ms. Dunston donated her ova in light of Ms. Dunston having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and having been informed that her chemotherapy treatments would likely render her infertile. Mr. Szafranski is asking the Appellate Court to enjoin Ms. Dunston from using those pre-embryos.
Embryonic tissue that was removed is first tested for genetic abnormalities. This is done so that the healthiest embryos are frozen and implanted. Dr. Timothy Yeko, a medical director of the assisted reproductive technology program at the Reproductive Medicine Group in Tampa, talked about the genetic testing, “ Most of our patients now choose to have this genetic testing, which has come into widespread use in the past year or so. By doing this , the miscarriage rate has dropped by 50 percent because the genetically abnormal embryos are the ones that end in miscarriage.”
The fact that researchers must destroy human embryos to obtain the stem cells is the main issue that prevents the support of many Americans for federal funding. The question of terminating the embryo of viable offspring is a very divisive issue and will probably not be resolved
Procedural Facts: In May 2010, a couple of months after Plaintiff Jacob Szafranski donated his sperm and have eight eggs fertilized for freezing, Plaintiff Jacob Szafranski sent Defendant Karla Dunston a text message ending the relationship. In August 2010, two months after the relationship ended, Plaintiff Jacob Szafranski filed a pro se complaint in the circuit court of Cook County. Plaintiff Jacob Szafranski sought to keep Defendant Karla Dunston from using the frozen pre-embryos so he was not forced to father a child against his will. Defendant Karla Dunston ended up counterclaiming and asking the court to grant her sole custody and control over the pre-embryos so she could someday use the pre-embryos to bear her children. Defendant Karla Dunston sited breach of contract and asked the court for relief under promissory estoppel. The circuit court ended up siding with Defendant Karla Dunston by granting her full custody and control over the use of the frozen pre-embryos.
An embryo should have the same rights as any other human, being, if a baby is unwanted, go for adoption. “There are thousands of loving families waiting to adopt children”(Source B). Why abort, when you can go for adoption? There are many families out there that will desire to adopt unwanted babies. “Approximately 5 million Americans alive today are adoptees, 2-4 percent of all families have adopted, and 2.5 percent of all children under 18 are adopted”(Source B). Adoption has become more common in the United States, and it is a great solution for those mother who have unwanted pregnancies to not abort their child but to give them for
This report describes how ethics involving embryos has been ongoing for 25 years but has significantly increased with the stem cell controversy. Another issue brought up by this report is whether or not federal funds should be spent on an issue that is so ethically
Kass, a case dealing with one party objecting the use of frozen genetic material to achieve pregnancy of another party, as an introduction for his article. Providing the facts of this controversial issue works very well in setting up the content of his article for the interest of his reader. Other cases he repeatedly refers to are the Hecht v. Superior Court, Davis v. Davis, and the Buzzanca surrogacy case. By using these court cases as examples, McKee is able to provide unbiased facts as support in the content of his article.
In or about June of 2011, Jennifer Cramblett and Amanda Zinkon decided to start a family together. Later that summer the two met with Dr. Nicholas J Spirtos of the Northeast Ohio Fertility Clinic, during which Dr. Spirtos recommended that the couple seek a sperm donor through the Midwest Sperm Bank. The two women spent the next week searching through donor profiles from the clinic; they had decided that they would seek a donor with similar genetic traits as they themselves had. Although the couple had decided that Jennifer would carry first, Amanda intended to be inseminated by the same sperm at a later date so that their children would be biologically related. After reviewing histories of their most favorable donors, Amanda and Jennifer
Only twenty years ago, embryo freezing (cryopreservation) was considered a technique that raised “disturbing,” “extremely difficult,” “incredibly complex,” and even “nightmarish” ethical issues. Currently, however, at least 41 of the 169 infertility clinics in the United States have begun to implement in vitro fertilization protocols (IVF) (Freemann et al., 1986). The number of frozen embryos in this country nearly tripled, from 289 to 824, between 1985 and 1986 (Van Steirteghem and Van Den Abbel, 1988). An estimated ten infants in the U.S. and sixty in the world were born as of 1988 after having been frozen as embryos. The government and professional advisory groups have endorsed embryo
Embryonic harvesting and freezing is considered an ethical dilemma and morally unacceptable. Karen Capato reserved sperm for in-vitro fertilization posthumous and reared twins as a result. In this instance, technology was used after the death of a spouse to create life posthumous and the use of such is considered an act of God. “The Bible mentions in its parables that we should not to disrupt a life” (E. Horning, personal communication, January 31, 2013). Manipulating genetics
Fear of abortion has gone to ridiculous levels. In some states like North Dakota and Colorado, voters will decide on November 4, 2014 if human eggs should been given the legal status of “personhood” even though they are eggs and not people. (Gray, 2014.) Science shows that human eggs only contain half the DNA necessary to kick start a baby. Sperm
One common perception of nature is that it is something raw, untouched by human civilization. This point of view suggests that humans are completely separated by nature and that our cultures and technologies are in some way unnatural. However, I believe that not only are we a part of nature, but our cultures are also deeply entwined with how we view nature. In this paper, I will review Emily Martin’s The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles as well as Michael Pollen’s Why ‘Natural’ Doesn’t Mean Anything Anymore in order to examine how nature, culture, and power relate with each other. Martin asserts that gender stereotypes affect biologists’ description of the natural world, particularly in the human reproduction process. Pollen makes a case that nature in fact lacks any meaning yet is often used as strong rhetoric. I argue that nature is constructed through cultural values and is used for rhetorical purposes, which shows that people manipulate facts in order to gain authority.
An issue that has caused great legal debate is the freezing of eggs and embryos. Freezing allows savings eggs or embryos for later implantation; not all are used. However, frozen embryos and eggs generally have a lower success rate. The question arises of what happens to them if the couple decides to divorce, or one or both of them dies? These situations have been decided through court determinations. In 1987, the status of frozen embryos was brought before the Victorian courts with the case of Mr and Mrs Rios, who had died in a plane crash. The embryos from Mr and Mrs Rios had been frozen in 1981. There were many ethical and moral concerns regarding this case. Should the embryos remain frozen indefinitely, be donated, or kept for research? The Infertility (Medical Procedures) Act
After a cancer diagnosis, Victoria decided to take a proactive approach to her fertility with egg freezing at our Lafayette fertility center.
biased between the male and the female reproductive biology. The article focuses on the role of