by Maggie Wilson

Created on: June 28, 2008

FactSheet - Understanding the ethics behind bringing children to those unable to reporduce naturally.
Should medical research be used to experiment on cells? That question is the topic of ethical debate that many people go through when considering Invitro Fertilisation. MaMany couples are desperate to have a family and will try all offered options to conceive. Are they prepared to donate some of their cells to be used for research? They may be asked to do this when consenting to IVF. Are the embryos considered human? If so, at what stage of development would they be considered so? What should happen to spare embryos in the lab?

Who decides if the embryos are frozen? How long should they be frozen? How and when should they be destroyed? A couple many want to have a subsequent pregnancy and wish the embryos to be kept. What about the quality of those frozen embryos? There can be no guarantees.
There has been controversy in this field with couples having embryos frozen and then the male deciding that he does not want the embryo implanting .Maybe the couple have split up and he no longer consents to having a child. WWho has the right to make this decision? It is at this stage that the courts have bee involved and are responsible for the decision-making.
What about same sex couples? IVF may be their only way of having a child. Who is right and who is wrong? Surely, it is the decision of the couple whether they want a child. If the child is to be born into a stable, loving and caring home then what individual has the right to challenge their decision?
Couples also choose to have their embryos frozen before they undergo some medical treatments. For example with chemotherapy reproductive cells can be damaged and reduce fertility. What if they then die? Does the remaining partner, if it is a woman have the right to have sperm that has bee frozen implanted if her partner is now not able to show continued consent? Would this be fair on the child also?
Does an infertile couple have the right to reproduce? Does this right over ride the rights of the embryo, if it is classed that the embryo does in fact have rights of its own.
There are now definite laws regarding the implantation of foetus'. The limit in the UK for implantation is two embryos. This was initialised due to the prevalence of multiple births in women giving birth following IVF treatment. Was it ethical to have women giving birth to five or six babies after so many embryos being implanted? The women who gave birth to these children knew the risk of multiple births and would obviously stand up for their right to have done this.
If the individual or couple is defined as having the right to reproduce, does that give them the right to treatment and resources?
Pope Benedict XVI stated in June 2006,
"The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman".
"Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today's culture. Procreation must always take place within the family."
"They need to be aware that true love is only that which comes from the union of a man and a woman."
"A true family comes from the union of two people from two different sexes"
That is the view of the church, which has rather definite opinion on the ethics of this subject. Who is right? Who has the right to make the decisions in this field of medical research? The medical practitioners, researchers, scientists, the embryo or the infertile couple?

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