Loading...
Embryo Donation/Adoption
Clark, Peter A.
Clark, Peter A.
Author(s)
Author(s) (Additional)
Illustrator(s)
Producer(s)
Contributor(s)
Contributor(s) (Other)
Editor(s)
Advisor(s)
Contact(s)
Data Collector(s)
Keywords
GE Subjects
Collections
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
It is estimated that 2.1 million married couples or 5 million people in the United States are affected by infertility. Issues of human infertility are extremely complex physiologically, psychologically, financially, legally and ethically. Approximately 10-15% of infertile couples become candidates for various forms of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) to assist them in having their own biological children. In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the most utilized reproductive procedures that has allowed couples to have their own biological children. Because of the cost of IVF, numerous embryos have been frozen through a process called cryopreservation. It has been estimated that there are 500,000 spare embryos frozen with an additional 20,000 embryos added yearly. The issue is now what to do with the 500,000 frozen embryos that remain as “spares.” Various alternatives have been suggested. The embryos could be thawed and then destroyed, continued to be cryopreserved indefinitely, used for embryonic stem cell research, or offered for donation/adoption. What to do with these spare embryos places the legal, medical and ethical focus on the issue of personhood. If embryos are persons then it would be a moral imperative to “rescue” these embryos from their current status of being in “frozen animation.” Allowing for embryo donation/adoption is the only viable option that protects and preserves their human life. The other viable options are ethically unacceptable because they have the potential of harming or intentionally killing these embryos that deserve special respect. However, this cannot be done without medical, legal and ethical safeguards.
Note(s)
Topic
Type
Article
Date
2009
Identifier
ISBN
DOI
Copyright/License
With permission of the license/copyright holder