Infertility, assisted reproduction and rights

Boston University international law journal, 1990

I. INTRODUCTION An estimated two hundred conception clinics around the United States currently serve two million couples seeking assistance in combatting infertility. 1 These couples expend nearly one billion dollars to arrest their condition. Tragically, the national "take home baby rate" from these clinics is between eleven and fourteen percent. 2 From this, the question that becomes uppermost in the hearts and minds of many is whether there is a fundamental or international human right to health assistance in biological reproduction. In recognizing or structuring such a right, would the state be obligated to spend any and all reasonable amounts of money in order to validate the procreative rights of all women-regardless of marital status? Consistent with the fundamental constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should the state enforce its protective powers visa -vis infants at the moment of conception or at some point later in their embryonic development? In 1983, Sir Harry Gibbs, Chief Justice of Australian High Court, ruled "that a foetus has no right of its own until it is born and has a separate existence from its mother." 3 The common law tied the commencement of life to the time when an unborn first moved in the womb-or, in other words, when it

In this paper, we are concerned with the ethical implications of the distinction between natural reproduction (via sexual intercourse) and reproduction that requires assistance (either medical or social). We argue that the current practice of enforcing regulations on the latter but not on the former means of reproduction is ethically unjustified. It is not defensible to tolerate parental ignorance or abuse in natural reproduction and subsequently in natural parenting, whilst submitting assisted reproduction and parenting to invasive scrutiny. Our proposal is to guarantee equal (ethical and legal) treatment to people engaging in either form of reproduction or parenting.

Zbornik Matice srpske za prirodne nauke, 2004

One of the main characteristics of the new millennium is the affirmation of human rights in all aspects of human existence, with the intention of turning declarative statements into reality. Development of up-to-date assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and their application in infertility treatment have raised numerous ethical, legal, religious, social and other questions. In vitro fertilization, donation of gametes, embryos and pre-embryos, cryopreservation of gametes, embryos, ovarian and testicular tissues, embryo transfer, genetic reproductive techniques, cloning and other sophisticated methods used in infertility treatment require cooperation between the medical and legal professions. Ethical aspects of human reproduction and assisted fertilization are based on full respect of the life of an individual even before conception, from pre-embryo stage, via embryo stage and fetus stage to a newborn infant. Regarding investigative and clinical projects, this standpoint implies t...

Human Reproduction Update, 1999

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) and assisted reproductive techniques have become common practice in many countries today, regulated by established legislation, regulations or by committee-set ethical standards. The rapid evolution and progress of these techniques have revealed certain social issues that have to be addressed. The traditional heterosexual couple, nowadays, is not considered by many as the only 'IVF appropriate patient' since deviations from this pattern (single mother, lesbians) have also gained access to these treatments. Genetic material donation, age limitation, selective embryo reduction, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, surrogacy and cloning are interpreted differently in the various countries, as their definition and application are influenced by social factors, religion and law. Financial and emotional stresses are also often described in infertile couples. Information as deduced from the world literature regarding IVF regulation, as well as about the existing religious, cultural and social behaviours towards these new technologies, is presented in this article in relation to the social aspects of assisted reproduction.

Innovations In Assisted Reproduction Technology [Working Title]

There is no doubt that for a couple who are having difficulties in conceiving, having a child is an objective good. However, it is also indisputable that assisted reproduction techniques raise clear ethical issues. In order to begin this bioethical reflection, it should be clearly established that the early embryo, which can be manipulated or destroyed using these techniques, is a living being of our species. We believe this is unquestionable from a biological point of view, and it therefore deserves our full respect. The bioethical assessment of assisted reproduction techniques includes analysis of the embryo losses caused by their selection and manipulation through preimplantation genetic diagnosis, 'social freezing' or the possible lack of rigour in the information provided by the clinics involved, to which must be added the higher morbidity reported in babies born as a result of these procedures.

Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 2020

Infertility is defi ned as the inability of a couple to conceive a child after 12 months of regular and unprotected sexual intercourse or after 6 months, in case of women who are over 35 years. Currently, assisted human reproductive techniques (ART) can help infertility couples worldwide and promise unquestionable benefi ts to humanity. The study proposes an assessment of problems that couples with fertility issues are facing in Romania using a special questionnaire composed of 8 segments and 65 items. The questionnaire was completed by 860 women who benefi ted from ART in diff erent fertility clinics nationwide. By analyzing the results, we identifed the socio-economical and legal concerns that occured when

Medicina y Ética, 2022

The New bioethics law in France, proposed in 2019 and approved by the National Assembly on June 29, 2021, makes in its first article, concerning the art (Artificial Reproductive Technology), modifications to article L. 2141-2 and L.2141-3 of the law No. 2011-814 of July 7, 2011 relating to bioethics. It thus opens the way to "any couple formed by a man or a woman or by two women or any unmarried woman". As a result, the link between law and bioethics is disrupted. While the law must protect the individual interest, bioethics reminds the law that the common good must also be protected. Hence the following questions that arise following this new bioethics law: is art a right for all? Is it legitimate to claim it in the name of equality? What about justice? In this article, I would like to approach the subject from a bio-legal point of view by situating the problem within the framework of the philosophy of law.

Assisted Reproduction, especially IVF; an ethical reflection on the cultural tendencies regarding assisted reproductive techniques and the rights and responsibilities of prospective parents. Contrasting the relevant documents of the Church on assisted reproduction and comparing that with the relevant clauses in Italian law on assisted reproduction.

The aim of this article is to investigate whether techniques used for artificial reproduction safeguard or promote the future child’s welfare, and whether they are capable of offering potential future children the best possible chance for the best life, in keeping with guidelines derived from the Principle of Procreative Beneficence. This analysis will be important for discerning the parental responsibility of couples or single reproducers who plan to use or have used any of these techniques, and also for those who defend the Principle of Procreative Beneficence, which implicitly entails the use of techniques of assisted human reproduction. The paper concludes that prospective parents should be informed not only of the specific level of risk and potential damages associated with each IVF technique, but also of the fact that given the available evidence none of the standard IVF techniques can be considered to be risk free, there is reason to believe that none of these techniques can be reconciled with the responsibility of prospective parents to the promote welfare of future children and/or to offer them the best possible life

Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 2011

Oxford University Press eBooks, 2016

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2020

Assisted reproductive technologies A treatment for infertility that involves the laboratory handling of eggs, sperm, or embryos. Some examples of assisted reproductive technologies are in vitro fertilization (IVF), oocyte, and sperm donation or surrogacy. Biopolitics Biopolitics refer to the intersection and mutual incorporation of life and politics. For Foucault, life must be understood as both an object and effect of political strategies and technologies, whereby the sovereign right to seize, repress, and destroy life is complemented by a new form of power that aims to develop, optimize, order, and secure life. Intersectionality Intersectionality relates to the observation that power structures based on categories such as gender, race, sexuality, ableism, and class interact with each other in various ways and create inequalities, discrimination, and oppression. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term showing how social movements tend to not recognize the conditions for people who fall between the categories. LGBTQIA reproductive rights Reproductive rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, and asexual people to (not) have and to parent children. Population control State policies attempting to limit the growth of certain members of a population in terms of class, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc., especially through unrestricted/restricted access to contraception and/or (forced) sterilization. Reproductive rights concern a wide set of societal problems and demands ranging from access to abortion to contraception, forced sterilization, family planning programs, reproductive exploitation through sex work or reproductive labor (surrogacy, oocyte provision), obstetric violence, early and/or forced marriage, early and/or unwanted pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, unsafe sex, violence (sexual, physical, psychological), fertility treatment, LGBTQIA reproductive rights, body norms, and intimate surgery. The list is constantly expanded by activists and scholars alike responding to an intensifying and ongoing development of new technologies aiming to control, manipulate, or modify reproductive bodies, their reproductive organs, and their reproductive capacities. Reproductive rights and related questions such as population control through forced sterilization or eugenics, access to health and maternal care, or the effect of toxic environments on people's (in)fertility tackle key concerns of geographic inquiry ranging from the political geographies of the nation and population to development geographies or humanenvironment relations. The key conceptual foundations of reproductive rights draw on inter-and transdisciplinary research. At the center of current discussions around reproductive rights are the distinctions and alignments between the at times conflicting, at times interchangeably used perspectives of reproductive rights, reproductive health, and reproductive justice. In geography, reproductive rights research covers the fields of intimate geopolitics and reproductive geographies. While reproduction has traditionally been addressed within the subfield of population geography measuring fertility rates or mother and infant mortality, more recent scholarships on intimate geopolitics and reproductive geographies draw on feminist, Black, postcolonial, and critical geographic thought investigating people's experiences of, access to, and struggles for reproductive rights, health, and justice.

2003

EUROPEAN POLITICAL AND LAW DISCOURS, 2017

Actual bioethical problem of ratio between reproduc tive rights of a human being and his\her right to life was investigated in this work specifi cally on the legal status of human embryos and gametes (because of their destruction) during assis ted reproductive technology (ART). Issues of selection and reduction are considered. Different m ethods of assisted reproduction (fertilization in vivo, in vitro, homologous and heterologous) are analyzed in detailed. Absence of universal international legal instrument on regulation of the use of ART, that causes discrepancies of human embryo legal status because of different nati onal legislation, is determined. The attention on prevention of narrowing the scope and content of the right to life as a result of the implementation of reproductive rights is accented. The necessity of adopting a uniform act to protect human life regardless its stage of developm ent is proclaimed