Bioethics Flashcards
Ethical issues surrounding fertility treatment
Spare embryos- Embryos that are not used are destroyed. This can be seen as murder by some people. Human life is sacred.
Designer babies- Embryos may be modified to achieve desirable traits such as the sex of the baby. This goes against biblical teaching as each person is created naturally in the image of God.
Identity- Children born from a donor may find it difficult when they discover how they were conceived.
Compromising religious beliefs on marriage- IVF may involve a third party, and some may say that this is considered adultery. Some Christians are concerned that this is not what God intended and goes against the bible.
What are the 4 points in the 2008 act for human embryos?
Creation- Ensuring that the creation and use of all human embryos outside the body- whatever their process used in their creation- are subject to regulation.
A ban on selecting the sex of offspring for social reasons.
Regulation- Allowing for the regulation of both partners in a same sex relationship as legal parents or children conceived through the use of donated sperm, eggs or embryos.
Same sex- Enabling people in same sex relationships and unmarried people to apply for an order allowing for them to be treated as the parents of the child using a surrogate.
What are the three points in the 1990 act for human embryos?
Regulate these three aspects:
CCU-The creation,care and use of human embryos outside of the body of a mother.
CCU-The collection,care and use of donated human sperm and eggs.
The storage of these human gametes and embryos.
Church views on embryo experimentation
England- human embryos are sacred and should be respected.
It is permissible as long as the intention is to alleviate human suffering and no alternative is available.
Ireland- it’s wrong as it does not benefit the embryo.
It’s unacceptable to create embryos for research with the intention of destroying it later.
Embryo research is contrary to the sanctity of life.
Catholic- life beings at conception.
Embryo experimentation is wrong.
Life should be protected from conception.
Two types of surrogacy
Traditional surrogacy- this is when the eggs of the surrogate mother are used. They may be fertilised using donor sperm or the sperm of the commissioning male parter. Uses the method of IUI so fertilisation takes place naturally.
Gestational surrogacy- this form of surrogacy doesn’t used the surrogates own eggs and she will have no genetic link to the baby she is carrying. An embryo is created through IVF then implanted into the uterus.
What is the sanctity of life?
God created all of life therefore all life is sacred and should be protected. Abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment all go against the sanctity of life because they devalue life.
What is IVF?
In Vitro Fertilisation
It involves a human egg and sperm being brought together in a test tube or petri dish by doctors.
What is IUI?
Intrauterine Insemination.
This is when the sperm is collected from semen samples, and using a syringe, is placed into the woman’s uterus when she is ovulating.
