Specific Ethical Question

My interest lies within the medical field. The ethical question I am focusing on is about In vitro. This is a process in which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside of the body.  Eggs are removed from the woman’s ovaries and then adding sperm to fertilize them. Once fertilized, the egg gets transferred into that woman’s uterus. 1. Is it ethical to do In vitro to help with infertility?

2. It is ethical to do In vitro

                In vitro helps couples/individuals who are infertile have a chance at their own genetic child. If there is a technology giving them that opportunity, why not use it? This technology also helps women who cannot carry a baby full term or even a little bit of the time with the use of a surrogate.  It can be the embryo from that couple but inserted into a surrogate to make a healthy baby possible.  In vitro can also be used to prevent diseases and birth defects in babies. Embryos can be sorted out and healthy ones can be singled out from the ones that will produce a birth defect or disease.  The other embryos will be frozen or exposed of.  Embryos may be destroyed in In vitro but they don’t always survive during natural conception either because some embryos fail to implant in the uterine wall and then never become a baby. 

It is not ethical to do In vitro

                This process goes against religion and the beliefs of the religions. It is a “technical action” rather than an “act of conjugal union”.  It is seen as unnatural because In vitro is done in a lab with a third party instead of a couple doing it themselves naturally. It is like playing God by creating life that wouldn’t normally exist. This also doesn’t limit to just couples but single women with an unknown donor’s sperm to fertilize her eggs, and same sex couples using what they have and an unknown to get an embryo.  The doctors can fertilize eggs and then sort out embryos that are preferred, which could lead to designer babies.  The parents could choose exactly what traits and what gender their child is, which also goes against religious beliefs and takes the individuality out of the individual if parents can just select for what they want.  Those embryos that are not used are killed and those embryos could have become a person if it was used.

3. I believe In vitro is ethical to do. If I was told that I was infertile and I wanted a baby with my genetic material, I would consider In vitro. Most of the time, it isn’t someone’s fault if they are infertile, so why shouldn’t they have a chance to have their own child?

4. http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/oma/oma_01invitro.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/14/vitro-fertlization-ivf-ethics

http://www.gfmer.ch/PGC_RH_2005/pdf/Ethics_IVF.pdf

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=787dfd47-b5f5-4b67-bde3-104f64fba10e%40sessionmgr10&vid=8&hid=12

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/infertility/ivf.html