Medical Ethics - IVF Flashcards
State 3 supporting Religious principles.
God-given purpose to procreate.
“Love thy neighbour” - brings happiness, prevents suffering, stewardship means improving the world.
Islam - Abraham and Zachariah’s prayers. Permissible within bounds of marital relationship.
Outline IVF.
Ova and sperm cells taken from Mother & Father (or Donors).
Several Ova are artificially fertilised in a Petri dish.
Once divided into 8 cells, becoming embryos, several are implanted.
Pregnancy continues as normal.
Excess embryos are discarded or frozen.
Quote from the World Health Organisation
8-10% of couples in industrialised countries face fertility issues
Quotes for the Sharon Bernardi case
48 year-old, Sunderland
Lost 6 babies at birth and Edward at 2
“Delighted” at House if Commons approval
IVF is “no different from having a heart transplant”
Quote for Introduction, Michael Fischer
“only one rule in medical ethics need concern [us] - that action on your part best conserves the interest of the patient”.
Quote for 2nd Christian supporting teaching - caring for others
Church and Bible teach to “love thy neighbour”
Quote for Islam supporting point - Qur’an 42:49-50
“He leaves childless whom he wills”
Quote for Christian against - 1949, Pope Pius XII
No external fertilisation. Those who do “take the Lord’s work into their own hands.”
Quote for Christian against - Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
Teaches that “He sets the time for birth” and “the time for killing”
Quote for Sanctity of Life - 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20
Life is “given by God”
“you do not belong to yourselves, but to God”
1st Quote for Albert Schweitzer - ‘Reverence for Life’
We “cannot help but have a reverence for life… that is the foundation of morality”.
2nd Quote for Albert Schweitzer
Humans are born with an intrinsic “will to live”
Jonathan Glover challenges Schweitzer. 1977 book ‘Causing Death and Saving Lives’. Death is hard for others not the subject.
“for the subject, death itself consists merely of the moment when consciousness vanishes”
Peter Singer’s Personhood - killing embryos is not wrong
“potential human life” and not a “human life with potential”
Braithewaite’s contribution to consent
Puts forward that “the doctor has only the power over the patient which the latter gives him”
