Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights

Will procreation become just another commodity in the marketplace with "designer" sperm, ova, and embryos offered for sale? Will the attention and monies focused on the new reproductive technologies take away resources from infertility prevention, prenatal care, and adoption? If states move to regulate such practices, will this encourage widespread governmental interference in reproductive choice? How will society look at the biologically unique children who are the products of genetic manipulation--and more importantly, how will these children view themselves?This controversial book explores the answers to these questions that are frequently being asked as the battles over reproductive technologies and freedoms become more heated and touch more people's lives. Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights examines both the clinical and personal perspectives of reproductive technologies. Experts explain and debate the growing number of procreative possibilities--in vitro fertilization, genetic manipulation of embryos, embryo transfer, surrogacy, prenatal screening, and the fetus as patient. Some of the leading authorities in the field, including John Robertson, Ruth Hubbard, and Gena Corea, address the ethical, legal, religious, social, and psychological concerns that are inherent in the issues.Essential reading for every person concerned with control over basic issues of human destiny, Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights provides unique and comprehensive coverage on the subject of technologically controlled childbearing and particularly its effects on mothers and their unborn children.

Authored by Baruch, Elaine; D'Adamo, Amadeo F; Seager, Joni

Contents Preface - Introduction: Women's Health and the New Reproductive Technologies - Reproductive Technologies: The Two Sides of the Glass Jar - In Vitro Fertilization, GIFT, and Related Technologies--Hope in a Test Tube - Fetal Imaging and Fetal Monitoring: Finding the Ethical Issues - Power, Certainty, and the Fear of Death - A Short Answer to "Who Decides?" - What the King Can Not See - Reproductive Technology and the Commodification of Life - Moral Pioneers: Women, Men, and Fetuses on a Frontier of Reproductive Technology - In Vitro Fertilization and Gender Politics - A Womb of His Own - Psychological Effects of the New Reproductive Technologies - Brave New Baby in the Brave New World - In Vitro Fertilization: Ethical Issues - Moral Reflections on the New Technologies: A Catholic Analysis - Procreative Liberty, Embryos, and Collaborative Reproduction: A Legal Perspective - Problems in Commercialized Surrogate Mothering - Reproductive Technologies and the Bottom Line - Technology, Power, and the State - Prenatal Screening and Discriminatory Attitudes About Disability - Eugenics: New Tools, Old Ideas - Women and Reproductive Technologies: A Partially Annotated Bibliography