Assisted Reproductive Technology

by Jerri Rowe, MS

Assessments Activities

1. The most important ethical considerations in ART are: (Answer: a)
a. Direct harms and benefits to stakeholders
b. The strength of someone's desire to have biologically related children
c. Potential social effects from allowing technology to replace natural reproduction

2. Rights are the sort of things that apply to (Answer: a)
a. Persons as defined by law
b. Future generations
c. Non-human animals

3. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides: Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his ...family... and Article 16
Men and women of full age have the right to ...found a family.

Given these ideals, (Answer: a)

a. access to ART should only be limited by government for serious health concerns as with other medical technologies about which persons have moral disagreements
b. decisions to extend years of procreative life have significant social impacts and therefore it is appropriate for government to limit access to ART at later ages
c. Families can be founded by adopting children who are not biologically related and so access to ART can be limited without moral objection.