Ethical Issues Related to In-vitro Fertilization
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Margaret Smith is a 60-year old healthy woman who has been married to her husband Frank for three years. They decided to try to conceive a child as this is the first marriage for both and they want kids. Both Margaret and Frank's parents lived healthy into their 90s. Margaret and Frank conceived through in-vitro fertilization after several attempts and spent a lot of money. For the first trimester of her pregnancy, she received daily injections to prevent miscarriage and was placed on bed rest for the final 4 months. She gave birth to healthy twin boys two months after her 61st birthday. Both Margaret and Frank took medical leave from their jobs?
What is your analysis of the various ethical considerations involved in this situation? How should the competing ethical considerations be resolved? Argue both sides of the issue, explicitly basing the arguments on ethical theories and/or principles. CITE SOURCES!!
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Solution Summary
The real-life case of a 60 year old woman who has twins is discussed, along with the opinions of fertility doctors is discussed.
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Margaret herself said, in a TV documentary, "I gave them life and I never heard of anyone who complained about that!" She used donor eggs of someone she knew and that was important to her. While she endured a lengthy bed-rest period, something compelled Margaret and her husband to do this procedure and it worked! She had to really want to do it, in order to endure the injections, costs and end-of-life care. Her twin boys are happy and well-loved with parents having plenty of life experience. A fertility doctor in India who serviced parents even older than Margaret and Frank says that older parents are more mature and ready for parenthood than younger parents, who are too busy and working. In the later case, it was critically important, culturally, to have a child and after many years of failure, they finally did, with much joy.
With this couple, having never married and with the resources to cover the expenses, they proceeded with a procedure that is available in this era. They don't live in China, where there once was an overpopulation but now, after many years of a one-child rule and preference to boys, there's a huge problem in that country with regards to the population growth.
Margaret had the freedom to do this and except for the traditional standards, which would criticize or ask a lot of questions, in many ways there is little wrong with what they have done. How much better or worse is it than the ...
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