'Reproductive ethics' Category
Down Syndrome Babies: An Endangered Species?
Recent developments in genetic testing are revolutionizing the ability to test for a variety of genetic disorders in unborn babies. Before now, this required a difficult, painful, and potentially hazardous procedure called amniocentesis, ususally reserved for expectant mothers over the age of 35. Amniocentesis itself carries a 0.5% miscarriage rate, but it has been used [...]
More on the Supreme Court’s Ruling
On April 19th, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a landmark decision. In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act as constitutional. There is much to rejoice about, yet much remains to be done. The Court has struck a balance between a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy [...]
Centering on Bioethics (5)
Our February Podcast features an excerpt from a radio interview about the new Center for Bioethics at Cedarville University. We also examine three news stories with bioethical implications: a new, ethically neutral source for ‘embryonic’ stem cells, a controversial medical treatment for a handicapped child, and a happy ending for a Katrina baby that was [...]
A Black Market for Stem Cells? (2)
Our short interim podcast for mid-December, where we analyze two items from the news. The first is a disturbing report from the Ukraine, where it appears that live babies may have been murdered to obtain bone marrow stem cells. The second is a discussion of bioethicist Arthur Caplan, and his endorsement of the “morning-after” pill, [...]
Brave New Fathers
As a follow-up to Aaron’s blog last week about reproductive tech, I came across an article in the LA Times. The story raises profoundly disturbing questions about how society views reproduction and having babies, and crosses the line into the chilling realm of eugenics. The news article starts out with Chad and David, a gay [...]
Reproduction and Our Modern Attitude
Our guest blogger is Aaron Costerisan, this year’s Center for Bioethics Fellow: In an article entitled ‘Reproduction Revolution: Sex for Fun, IVF for Children,’ Jo Whelan marvels at our change in attitude toward reproduction since Louise Brown became the first “test-tube†baby in 1978: “Who would have predicted how common IVF would become back in [...]
Reality Check for Plan B
It’s about time, claims bioethicist Arthur Caplan. In a recent commentary on MSNBC, Dr. Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, lauds the recent decision to make emergency contraception (also known as Plan B or the “morning-after pill”) available without a prescription. After all, he goes on, preventing pregnancy is [...]
The Business of Babies
Debra Spar, an economics professor at Harvard, has written a nice piece that shows just how pervasive the desire to have children can be, and how easily economic manipulation can take advantage of it. She writes: To those who suffer from it, however, infertility is a wretched curse — a disease that isn’t really a [...]
