Reproductive Technologies

Abstract

Recent developments in biological science have raised a series of wonderfully complex issues related to reproduction. These developments include the ability to use artificial insemination (AI), a technically simple procedure to allow couples who cannot reproduce normally to conceive and produce young using their own egg and sperm. The more interesting techniques, from the standpoint of moral issues, involve the various kinds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures which are used to fertilize the mother’s egg with a donor sperm, or fertilize a donor egg with the father’s sperm, the fertilized cells being implanted into the mother for gestation. If the mother is not able (or willing) to carry a fetus to parturition, then a surrogate mother can be implanted with fertilized cells, and this surrogate can carry the fetus to parturition. An interesting aspect of these procedures is that there are three separable kinds of parenting that must be distinguished: genetic, gestational, and social. The moral and legal issues involved in these procedures will be discussed after the procedures themselves are described. One additional issue to be considered is the possibility of cloning human embryos, a possibility that can easily be realized, and that has caused great concern among ethicists.