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Ethical Issues Having Babies

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Having babies is a common part of life. Unfortunately, not every individual is able to do this due to biological or other issues. Infertility and being unable to bear a child due to issues such as orientation affect a lot of individuals and couples. According to Brezina and Zhao (2012), “worldwide, more than 70 million couples are afflicted with infertility” (p.1). Sadly, this creates a lot of stress and heartache for those who wish to have kids but are unable to. Beginning in 1978, this changed when the first in vitro (IVF) baby was born. The birth of Louise Brown also commonly known as the first test tube baby was very important in the explosion of IVF in the years to come. This gave hope to many individuals and couples throughout the world …show more content…

Over the years many laws have been developed either in response to certain issues or to protect patients and their unborn fetus. One of the major ethical concerns is multiple births. Since this issue became noticed in the 1980’s many countries issued laws that require facilities to report the number of embryos transferred in an IVF cycle. However, there was no law limiting the amount of embryos transferred. Currently, there are many countries that do have laws restricting the amount of embryos to be transferred, in an effort to reduce the amount of multiple gestations (Brezina & Zhao, 2012). Multiple gestations, even in spontaneous pregnancies result in an increased in birth defects and other health related issues including pre-term babies and miscarriages. However, IVF has a higher chance of causing multiple pregnancies with as many as 8 embryos. Davies et al., (2012) found that “treatment with reproductive technology was associated with increased risks of cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, urogenital, and gastrointestinal defects and cerebral palsy” (p.1812).These risks must be considered and explained to the patient before procedures to follow the principle of autonomy. Another major concern with ART therapy is financing. For those individuals who are in high standing money is not an issue. However, others may have a difficult time scraping up the money needed for such procedures. Hagel …show more content…

Although this may be helpful to avoid certain sex linked disorders, it can also cause chaos. For instance, if used on a large scale it could mess with the gender proportions. It could also create many ethical and religious debates about playing God (Breina and Zhao, 2012). These are considerations that must be taken seriously in order to conserve such treatment for future generations. Over the years many laws have been developed in countries all over the world with differences related to “cultural attitudes, traditions, religious views, and the majority’s moral position” (Storrow, 2011, p.539). This has lead to many individuals going to other countries for procedures that they may not be able to have where they live. This process is called cross border reproductive care (CBRC) and occurs in places that have strict laws like exclusion of non-heterosexual couples from infertility treatments, bans on surrogacy’s, or egg donations (Storrow, 2011). Some people may also travel to foreign countries because of the difference in prices for treatments. Obesity is also a factor that may play a role in CBRC. Obese women often have harder times getting pregnant and seek treatment with ART more often than woman of normal weight. Pregnant obese woman often have “an increased risk of complications, leading to higher maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality and increased costs” (Koning et al.,

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