Abstract
When we initially heard about the first test-tube baby, two reactions surfaced immediately: first, congratulations and happiness; second, condemnation and alarm. Why? Because as we have always known, motherhood is sacred. It is so valuable that any means that we can develop to bring it to those for whom it was formerly impossible are blessed means, cause for the most sincere and total joy; and it is so holy and mysterious that any voluntary human intervention in the process is cause for terror of divine wrath. The most primitive and powerful hopes and fears of the human race hover around all reproductive technologies, and all new social or legal arrangements made possible by them, “Surrogate motherhood” included.
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Notes and References
Angela Roddey Holder, Legal Issues in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (New York: Wiley, 1977). Michael H. Shapiro and Roy G. Spece, Jr., Cases, Materials and Problems in Bioethics and Law American Casebook Series (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1981). There is also a recent informal treatment of the topic by a lawyer active in setting up surrogate pregnancies: Noel P. Keane, with Dennis L. Breo, The Surrogate Mother (Everest House, June 1981). The major recent source is Anne Taylor Fleming, “The New Conception” (The New York Times Magazine section: July 20, 1980). Two other serious reactions to the birth of Louise Joy Brown (the first test-tube baby) contain precisely one paragraph each on the topic of surrogate motherhood: Andrew Hellegers and Richard McCormick, “Unanswered Questions on Test Tube Life” America August 19, 1978, pp. 74–78, and Clifford Grobstein, “External Human Fertilization,” Scientific American 240 (June 1979), 57–67.
As Landrum B. Shettles, a prominent reproductive scientist at the time, put the case, “If the bridge is out, what’s wrong with using a helicopter?” See David Rorvik, “The Embryo Sweepstakes” (The New York Times Magazine section: Sept. 15, 1974) 17ff. Cited Holder, op. cit. p. 4. Since his participation in the notorious DelZio case (see DelZio v. The Presbyterian Hospital, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 1978 74 Civ. 3588) Dr. Shettles appears to have left this field. In the case of Louise Brown, of course, the husband was the donor. Were fatherhood the focus of the paper, a distinction would have to be drawn between the moral implications of Artificial Insemination by the husband (AIH) and AID; such is not our present concern.
See for example, Exodus 20: 14, Deuteronomy 5: 18.
See for example, Leviticus 20: 10, Deuteronomy 22: 22–24.
Holder, op. cit. p. 12.
David Rorvik, “Embryo Transplants” (Good Housekeeping June 1975) p. 78, Cited Holder, p. 5.
See Holder, pp. 5–9.
Holder, p. 7
Circuit Court of Wayne County, Michigan, 1980. Reported in 1980 Report On Human Reproduction and Law II A-1. Exerpted in Shapiro and Spece, op. cit. pp. 537–542.
Holder, op cit. p. 7; cited Shapiro and Spece, p. 540.
Shapiro and Spece, loc. cit.
Shapiro and Spece, p. 541.
Holder, p. 5.
Shapiro and Spece, p. 541.
Grobstein, op. cit. p. 63.
Holder, op. cit. p. 9.
Plato, Apology.
Holder, op. cit. p. 6.
Loc. cit.
Loc. cit.
Fleming, op. cit.
Hellegers and McCormick, op. cit. p. 76.
Cf. the sins of Daniele Petrucci (1959), cited Holder, op. cit. p. 2.
Hellegers and McCormick, loc. cit.
Grobstein, op. cit. pp. 64–65.
Grobstein, op. cit. p. 61.
Holder, op. cit. p. 1.
Fleming, op. cit.
Hellegers and McCormick, op. cit. p. 77.
Loc. cit.
Ibid p. 23.
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Newton, L.H. (1983). Surrogate Motherhood. In: Humber, J.M., Almeder, R.F. (eds) Biomedical Ethics Reviews · 1983. Biomedical Ethics Reviews. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-439-9_4
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