Tags: reproduction
Blog Posts (30)
Apr 20, 2012
Caplan: Time to Think about IVF Baby Health
Art Caplan reflects on study published in Fertility and Sterility which indicated that IVF babies have a 37% higher risk of being born with a birth defect compared to naturally conceived children.…
Apr 10, 2012
Octomom: "I Goofed."
According to LifeNews.com, Nadya Suleman admits that she made a mistake by undergoing an IVF procedure that resulted in the conception and birth of 8 children at once.…
Apr 09, 2012
Are "Anonymous Fathers" Really a Problem?
The Center for Bioethics and Culture continues its crusade against artificial reproduction; this time the target is sperm donation. Its recent film Anonymous Father’s Day argues that using a sperm donor to conceive causes serious emotional impact on children of sperm donors from not knowing anything about their biological fathers” It is described as a “secret” akin to a time bomb waiting to go off.…
May 17, 2010
Ethics of Reproductive Tourism Questioned
I was simply astonished to read the “ethical analysis” (if one could call it that) from DNAIndia.com in an article titled “New Age Moms Want Pregnancy Outsourced!”
Written from the Indian perspective, where everything from the UK and the US is outsourced to Indian laborers, I can understand the title, but the analysis is simply flawed every way.…
May 07, 2010
What's the Harm in a Pinprick?
It all depends on the context when asking the question–what’s the harm in a pinprick?
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, when talking about female circumcision, their committee on bioethics has decided that the procedure should be permitted for American doctors.…
Mar 28, 2010
Women Get Back Their VBAC
After years of recommending against vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), a NIH consensus panel has called for women to have greater access to the procedure and for women to be able to exercise greater choice over which birthing method (whether repeat cesarean or VBAC) is right for them, says AAFP News Now.…
Mar 26, 2010
Second Seed
Yes, apparently it’s true, according to the Kansas City Star, that March Madness and vasectomies are linked.
Men willingly choose to schedule this somewhat uncomfortable procedure during the Big Tournament, specifically.…
Jan 06, 2010
Time for the Tubes to Be Tied?
A Massachusetts woman, Tessa Savicki, 35, is suing the physicians, nurses and the medical center she says tied her tubes without her consent after the birth of her ninth child.…
Jun 16, 2009
Cultural Sex Selection: No Harm, No Foul?
Emily Willingham asks an important question as to whether the apparent cultural preference toward having a male child in the family among Asian-Americans represents a harm–either to Asian-American girls, or simply to women generally.…
Jun 02, 2009
Death in the Midwest
Never mind the obvious disconnect between being “pro-life” and trying to make your point by killing someone in cold blood. Let’s put that to the side for the moment and focus on something else: Dr.…
Published Articles (2)
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 11 Issue 3 - Mar 2011
Sexless Reproduction: A Status Symbol Molly Havard
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 10 Issue 11 - Nov 2010
Review of Charis Thompson, Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies Camisha Russell
News (19)
Apr 26, 2012
Pregnant woman who bought U.S. donor egg speaks out (CBC News)
A royal commission, several parliamentary committees, an act of Parliament and a federal agency have all debated reproductive technologies, touching on a quagmire of legal, social and ethical issues that include the exploitation of surrogates and the sale of sperm and eggs before the advent of cryopreservation. Prof. Françoise Baylis, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Bioethics and Philosophy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, advised the royal commission and later sat on the board of Assisted Human Reproduction Canada before she quit in frustration in 2010 over concerns about its management.
Apr 23, 2012
Assisted human reproduction and the law (CBC News)
An air of confusion surrounds Canada’s rules governing fertility issues, such as assisted human reproduction. Although the federal government passed a law in 2004 that tackled a wide swath of the socially and ethically controversial issues surrounding reproduction, covering everything from human cloning to payment for sperm, the law hasn’t lived up to expectations.
Apr 13, 2012
Surrogacy Experts Help Navigate Murky Legal Waters (NPR)
There are a growing number of lawyers making a living by coordinating surrogacies — a pregnancy where a woman bears a child for someone else who can’t conceive or carry a pregnancy to term.
Apr 13, 2012
Toronto man may have 1,000 siblings through sperm donor (CTV)
A Toronto man believes he may be one of hundreds of children conceived by a single sperm donor — and he’s on a mission to track down as many of his siblings as possible.
Apr 13, 2012
Fertility treatment bans in Europe draw criticism (Fox News)
More than three decades after Britain produced the world’s first test-tube baby, Europe is a patchwork of restrictions for people who need help having a child. Many countries have strict rules on who is allowed to get fertility treatments. And recent court rulings suggest nothing’s likely to change anytime soon.
Apr 09, 2012
Scientists rewrite rules of human reproduction (The Independent)
The first human egg cells that have been grown entirely in the laboratory from stem cells could be fertilised later this year in a development that will revolutionise fertility treatment and might even lead to a reversal of the menopause in older women. Scientists are about to request a licence from the UK fertility watchdog to fertilise the eggs as part of a series of tests to generate an unlimited supply of human eggs, a breakthrough that could help infertile women to have babies as well as making women as fertile in later life as men.
Apr 02, 2012
The Case Against Kids (New Yorker)
A New Yorker book review asks the question “Is Procreation Immoral?” and reviews two books that explore the ethical issues in the decision to (or not to) reproduce.
Apr 02, 2012
DIY sperm banking? Some clinics offer at-home kits (MSNBC)
Last Monday, the Cleveland Clinic launched its “NextGen” sperm banking kit. But are American men really crying out for such a service? And while sperm are pretty hearty swimmers in their intended environment, can they really survive the punishment meted out by the UPS guy? #reproduction #sperm
Mar 26, 2012
Father-to-Son sperm donation: 'Too bizarre' for child? (msnbc)
After three years of trying to conceive, a married couple in the Netherlands in their early 30s learned they could not have a child because the husband produced no sperm. They did not want to use sperm donated from a stranger, partly because this would mean the child would not share genes with the husband’s side of the family. But because the husband had no brothers to donate, the couple seemed at a loss on how to pass on his gene pool. Then the couple thought of an unconventional solution: Use sperm from the husband’s father. The child produced from this union of egg and sperm would have a “father” who was his biological half- brother, and a “grandfather” who was his biological father.
Mar 20, 2012
In vitro babies denied U.S. citizenship (USA Today)
Chicago native Ellie Lavi could not have been happier when she gave birth to beautiful twin girls overseas. She found that the U.S. State Department did not share in her joy when she went to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to apply for citizenship for her children. An embassy staffer wanted to know whether Lavi got pregnant at a fertility clinic. She said yes and was told that her children were not eligible for citizenship unless she could prove that the egg or sperm used to create the embryo was from an American citizen.