Reproductive Medicine and Ethics

With the introduction of in vitro fertilisation for the treatment of infertility in the later half of the twentieth century, the social connections of human reproduction experienced profound upheaval. The dissociation of sex and reproduction resulted in a reorganization of gender and kinship connections, while embryo and fetus diagnostics resulted in a move from family planning to child planning. Women were the most affected of all those involved, because their bodies are required to mediate the technology. However, while improved reprogenetic technologies have expanded swiftly and benefited many people, many women around the world lack access to basic reproductive health treatments for both fertility and infertility. Bioethicists' use of the term "reproductive ethics" often questions about the morally proper use of assisted reproductive technologies, as well as, perhaps less commonly, challenges resulting from technologies that stop conception or end pregnancies. Reproductive ethics is concerned with the ethics of human reproduction and prenatal issues such as contraception, assisted reproductive technologies (e.g., in vitro fertilisation, zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ISCI), and so on), surrogacy, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

• Reproductive Ethics