New reproduction technologies

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New reproduction technologies

During the debate on March 15, 2000 which discussed new reproductive technologies (NRTS) issues were raised regarding the positive and negative effects of NRTS. Issues raised by the advocates of NRTS were surrounding infertility, homosexuality, disease, and cloning. All of these factors raised were concerning the moral rights of individuals who were unable to have children of their own without the help of NRTS. The debate continued by stating that denying individuals the right to utilize NRTS was immoral and in effect discriminated against them due to their ?unfavorable? situation. In contrast, the opposition against NRTS raised very negative concerns which included the commercialization of human reproduction, quality control, generating waste products, and the rights of the pre-embryo. These issues suggest that through NRTS children were being commodified and the rights of the pre-embryo were being ignored. The debate generally focused on the rights of the individual, man or woman, versus the rights of the unborn child.

The debate was very interesting which led me to look at the impact of NRTS at another angle. After examining the issues raised in the debate I was left questioning why NRTS exist in the first place? Whose interest do they serve? Who won/lost and what was at stake? The reason I am focusing on these issues is because while I was reading the NRTS articles something stuck in my mind. In What Price Parenthood? Social and Ethical Aspects of Reproductive Technology by Paul Lauritzen there are some issues covered which seem to be left out of the class debate. The societal pressures to utilize NRTS once they are presented to an individual are overwhelming. Paul Lauritzen raises issues regarding the social aspects of NRTS that I had never considered. I have therefore decided to further research the social impacts of NRTS. My essay has two objectives: first I would like to prove that no one has the moral right to engage in NRTS, it follows under the freedom of choice but it is not the ?right? of an individual. Second I will debate whether, due to societal influences, any individual actually ?chooses? NRTS or if they are coerced.

Rejecting the claim that it is an individual's moral right to engage in NRTS is based on the definition of a moral right. A moral right is an opportunity to choose an option that is available to everyone else. To deny a person the right to engage in an activity that every other person can do is morally wrong. It is just like, to use an example from Seinfeld, the 'soup nazi? taking control over his soup restaurant by deciding who can have soup and who cannot by the manner in which a person orders soup. In this example the if you do not: step up to the counter, state what kind of soup you want, step to the right, pay for your soup, and leave without speaking; then the 'soup nazi? yells, ?no soup for you, next!?. It is an extreme example of denying a person the same opportunity as everyone else but it gets the point across that moral rights are based on equal opportunity. The reason, then, that NRTS are not a moral issue is due to the fact that they are expensive and not available to everyone unless the individual can afford it (which the majority of the population cannot). If NRTS were covered under OHIP then they would be considered a moral right of the individual, because everyone would have access to them and denying a person the opportunity to engage in NRTS would be denying them a moral right. This is precisely the difference between abortion and NRTS. Due to the fact that anyone can have access to abortions, denying a person the ability to have an abortion is immoral. Of course other issues factor into the debate consisting of the unborn child's right to life, but because abortion is accessible to everyone, it becomes a moral issue. NRTS, therefore, follow under the category of freedom of choice. The freedom to choose without the threat of punishment. This is an interesting topic, choice, which brings into account many other factors which will be addressed in the next section.

Categorizing NRTS under the freedom to choose results in an analysis of what kind of choice an individual really has when considering NRTS. Are individuals able to choose NRTS, or are there so many other factors which come into play that an individual is coerced to engage in NRTS without being able to make an informed decision? Not only am I going to argue that NRTS are not a moral right but I am also going to dispute the idea that individual's are able to choose NRTS. There are a couple of steps which progress in the discussion of ?choice?. First, I would like to examine why choice exists in the first place, why do individuals engage in NRTS? Second, I will analyze the suppression of information regarding NRTS that make it impossible for an individual to make an informed choice. Finally, I will use Paul Lauritzen to show the societal impacts which factor into NRTS, almost creating a situation that forces people to engage in NRTS due to the negative impact carried by the alternatives.

It is easy to understand why individuals want to have children. It is a very natural biological desire, and besides they are so darn cute! It is even easy to understand why people want to have children that resemble them ...

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Keywords: new reproductive technologies, new reproductive technologies and kinship, new reproductive technologies that will aide infertility, new reproductive technologies are quizlet, new reproductive technologies in vitro fertilization, new reproductive technologies in anthropology, new reproductive technologies surrogacy, new reproductive technologies ethical issues

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