Assisted reproductive technologies and their applications

Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Science has provided humans with immense knowledge about things and a lot of ease and comfort. With time increasing techniques and experimentations have come to the aid of thousands and million who undergo sever psychological trauma due to the fact that they do not have a child. Today not only are things like in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers being widely practiced so that families can have their own child as opposed to adoption but now it has been made possible for parents to actually choose the sex of baby. Human history tells us about a time when man wished and prayed to have male babies; many even buried or killed the female babies. Today, although people do not go to such extremes, they do undergo depression and psychological conditions if they are unable to have a baby of the desired sex. This new development aims to relieve couples of such conditions.

ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNIQUES

Hollywood produced a movie called "Tomorrow's Child" in which we see that a couple participates in an experimental procedure. The experiment is an advance version of in vitro fertilization where not only is the ovum fertilized outside the body but it completes it nine-month development stages outside the body in the laboratory. If this was to be made reality then it would be a step further in such techniques. Further it could replace the concept and technique of a surrogate mother (Tomorrow's Child).

However such methods are labeled morally incorrect and the extent to which such methods would be allowed in different societies and religions differs. In the religion Islam, if the assisted reproductive techniques are such that there is no integrity of the family's genetic lineage, then the method would not be allowed and considered immoral. Therefore in Islamic societies, a family can opt for assisted techniques provided that the genetic information involved in the embryo comes from the father and the mother i.e. The sperm and the ovum must be from the two people who are lawfully married to each other only. The Catholic branch of Christianity limits the reproduction to normal copulation (Vatican City), and at most might allow an ovum from another donator but still insists that the fertilization would be by the father's sperm and the fertilized ovum should be introduced in the mother rather than a surrogate mother.

Many people as well as philosophers argue that considering the fact that gametes and embryos are potential persons therefore their commercialization sahould be ceased and they should be treated with dignity and respect. Philosophers label this as "the argument from potential" (Steinbock B., 1992). Thus they conclude that selling of these is a form of slavery and steps should be taken to abolish this practice.

A couple of months ago, Claudia Kalb brought our attention to a case where a family desired to have a female child but was unable to. The mother, after having consecutive sons was going under psychological conditions. She now aimed to adopt a daughter. During her search for adoption she came across a method of assisted reproduction where to her joy and amazement, she found out that she can actually choose the sex of the baby (Claudia Kalb). The objectionable point that arises from genetic screening is that people are discriminating the other sex. This is highly forbidden and considered unethical in some religions e.g. Islam, which asks people not to discriminate between a male or female baby. There are also chances that instead of the desired sex, an embryo might be of the opposite sex and then under such circumstances the embryo with the undesired sex is discarded and destroyed. This is again highly objectionable and is no less than pure murder and the Catholic Church attests this by saying that life begins at the time of conception or fertilization (McAllister J. 1955).

Methods such as in vitro fertilization put pressure and strain on the woman rather than the man. Such methods can be psychologically harmful for the mother to be. Some women "feel like a piece of meat in a meatworks. But if you want a baby badly enough, you will do it" (The Women's Health Council). Women are subjected to a wide range of drugs which have harmful side effects. Some drugs induced to facilitate ovulation have also caused infertility in the male child. When women are put through the consumption of such drugs, the chances of multiple births increases, thus the woman gives birth to twins, triplets or even more.

In 2000, 53% of infants born through ART were multiple births, compared to 3% of births in the general population. The twin rate was 22 times higher than the general population; the triplet and higher multiples rate was 50 times higher. Their higher risk for birth defects and low birth weight add to already over-burdened health care costs." (Marie Anderson and John Bruchalski)

Many couples cannot afford to bring up more than one child at a time and hence in the case of multiple pregnancies, couples are often given the option of reduction. This puts the couple under psychological distress. Here they have spent so much money to acquire a baby that they have wanted for so long and now one of their babies will be killed. Not only that, it also increases the risks of affecting the pregnancy. Further multiple pregnancies can also be life threatening to the mother and increases the chances of fetal abnormalities. Such occurrences can lead to severe psychological conditions and be stressful for the couple.

CONCLUSION