Reproductive Technologies: Article Analysis

Mike McKee’s article, "Weighing the Right to Own an Embryo," made the front page of the Recorder, a daily legal newspaper published in San Francisco reporting on legal advice and interests of attorneys and legal practitioners. How did he make his article such a success? What made it front page worthy in the eyes of this legal audience? McKee’s article, "Weighing the Right to Own an Embryo," appeals to a legal audience by presenting an unbiased framework and evidence.

Amie Cullimore, a medical practitioner, filed a child support claim against Michael Ranson, who more than two decades ago donated his sperm to Amie Cullimore, who subsequently conceived two children. Cullimore alleges that throughout the years, Ranson has assumed the role of loco parentis, which means that Ranson has stood in the place of the parent throughout the years. Ranson filed a response that Bill 28, also known as, All Families Are Equal Act, which extinguishes Cullimore`s claim based on the assertion that the surrogate parents who lack an intention to be parents cannot be considered parents in law.

In the article “Selecting the Perfect Baby: The Ethics of “Embryo Design,” is an article about a married couple, name Larry and June Shannon. They have a daughter, four years old, name Sally, who is diagnosed with Fanconi Anemia. Therefore, the Shannons are getting help from a research team, to find the perfect bone marrow transplant for Sally. The Shannon couple is also interested in having another child and they are aware of the risks and odds of success. However, a PGD process has to be performed and the couple must undergo an IVF procedure more than once, before the implantation is successful, to be able to produce a healthy full-term baby.

We are living in a new era where technology can help women have babies in unconventional ways. Having children is a personal choice. In some people’s view, government should not be regulating when people should and should not start having a family. The ethical issue is when the parents start applying for governmental benefits after the baby is conceived via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and born posthumously. When practicing IVF, are we violating God’s will? This paper is to discuss the views of the four candidates interviewed in relation to posthumous conception and delivery, their views on benefits/inheritance entitlement to these babies, and ethical principles and theories in

Abortion is a controversial topic regarding the rights mainly of the fetus and the mother. Men’s rights and involvement are generally overlooked in the abortion process. Since females are the carriers of the embryo, most of the time the male’s input is not incorporated into the final decision. There are several debates regarding abortion and whose choice it should be to terminate the fetus. Every father has different expectations in a pregnancy and how much their decision should be included in the abortion depends solely on their involvement in the mother and embryo’s life. When the female deliberately engages in sexual intercourse, it becomes her responsibility to allow the fetus a right to her body and to include the father’s input. If

The principle of nonmaleficence, to do no harm, in reproductive technology can be applied to the prospective parents and the prospective child-the embryo. The procedures involved in attempting to impregnate a woman can be physically and emotionally damaging, but rewarding if done successfully. But the parties must first determine to what extent and at what cost will they risk to achieve their ultimate goal. It would cause great harm physically to the embryos if there were multiple unsuccessful attempts, but many would argue that the end outweighs the means, that it is worth it if the result was a viable pregnancy and healthy child.

Abortion is a controversial topic regarding the rights mainly of the fetus and the mother. Men’s rights and involvement are generally overlooked in the abortion process. Since females are the carriers of the embryo, most of the time male’s decisions are not incorporated into the final conclusion. There are several debates regarding abortion and whose choice it should be to decide in terminating the fetus. Every father has different outcomes in a pregnancy and how much their decision should be included in the abortion depends solely on their involvement in the mother’s life. When the female deliberately engages in sexual intercourse, it becomes her responsibility to carry the embryo to term and to allow the fetus to have a right to her

In this essay, the key points discussed will include; the basics and concept of surrogacy, deciding who the legal parent is, international law and how it plays a big role and lastly how the law has restricted individuals rights.

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

The law seems still to be grappling with how to determine what it means to be the parent of a child created through in vitro fertilization. According to Nolo.com, a legal parent is someone “who [has] the right to live with a child … and to make decisions about the child’s health, education, and well-being” . In one such case, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments to test whether children conceived via IVF after the death of one of the genetic parents are eligible for Social Security survivors’ benefits. The case began in 2011, when cancer patient Robert Capato deposited sperm with a fertility clinic prior to chemotherapy treatment. After his death, his wife, Karen Capato, carried out their plan to have children and conceived twins, using Robert’s

How do you tell your child that he was conceived after his father died in a car accident? Technology today is “improving the prospects of posthumous procreation, that is, having children after one’s death” (Rae, 2009, p. 181). This delicate issue is defined as a production of offspring arising after death (dictionary.com). This new, successful technology presents one of the most challenging ethical issues to tackle in healthcare. There are so many unanswered questions when discussing this topic. Should it be allowed? Who decides whether sperm can be collected? When should it be used to conceive (Kahn, 2009)? Above all, should a man be forced to become a parent? In American society, we do not force men or women to become parents being that they can decide for themselves. Conversely, one can decide for them in the event they have passed away. This deems to be an issue of contradiction which is why I take a stance against posthumous procreation.

Elizabeth Stern, who had sclerosis, believed she would not be able to carry a child. The agreement was that Whitehead would be “inseminated with Mr. Stern’s sperm, carry the pregnancy to term and then yield parental rights to the Sterns (Garg 2016). A legality issue arose when Whitehead decided that she wanted to keep the little girl, known as Baby M. The result of the two-year long court case was that the Sterns had full parental rights of Baby M. While gestational surrogacy is more widely used in 2017, this case raised some concerns around the surrogacy process. First, the exchange of money for a reproductive service. Unlike other forms of reproductive services such a sex work, there is not a point within the nine months of being pregnant that one can just up and quit. Even at a certain point, getting a legal abortion is not even allowed. Second, the fact that Whitehead’s decision about having custody of a child she gave birth to was undermined by a contract. Last, the decision of how much a woman’s body is worth, especially reproductive organs. Rather than these three concerns being resolved with the use of a new type of surrogacy, gestational surrogacy seems to be more

Reproductive technology was developed in the biology and genetics of the embryo as it is now possible to test for chromosome and gene defects in the embryo, prior to implantation. This technique is called preimplantation genetic testing or preimplantation genetic diagnosis and is when one or more cells are removed from the embryo and analysed for chromosomal disorders or genetic diseases before embryo transfer. Therefore, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) not only assist in conception but can also avoid the birth of a child with a disability or hereditary disease. While new technologies continue to extend the available options for infertile couples, they also have the potential to help single women and homosexual couples to have children. Overall, these technologies have developed from when they were first introduced to now and have

IVF raises many of these difficult moral issues. If the above conceptions about the nature of ethics were correct, however, discussion of these issues would either be futile (because morality is a matter of personal choice or opinion) or superfluous (because morality is what a divine or secular authority says it is) (Walters 23). In this paper, I want to suggest that it is not only possible, but also necessary to inquire into the ethics of such practices as IVF because the fact that we can do something does not mean that we ought to do it.

In vitro fertilization has no funding at this point in the United States other than a few states recently being forced to offer some type of financial help to those in need of it while going through the process. The federal government should offer funding for in vitro fertilization, especially to those whom are infertile and cannot conceive naturally. Funding may not be offered because some people may think that in vitro fertilization is immoral because, in their opinion, it can come off in a way in which doctors and parents appear