Reproductive technologies: contemporary applications and developments

Ethics

Reproductive Technologies -

There are many couples that are unable to have their own children the good old fashioned way. This should not preclude this couples from having children of their own if they so choose. The advances that have taken place in medical technology allows for these people to do something that they were previously unable to do. The use of IVF has come a long way.

There are many people that question the ethics of having a child via IVF, saying that it is unnatural and that people should not interfere with nature. But if people were to look at all advances in medical technology as interfering with nature, then the majority of the population would probably cease to exist. There is no reason that IVF technology should not be used to help those couples who want to have a child and through not fault of their own are unable to do so.

In the article "Her Body, My Baby" (2008), Kuczynski, tells a beautiful story about her experience with gestational surrogacy. This was not the couple's first choice but in the end was their only choice if they were going to have a biological child of their own. There are many ethical objections that have been raised in regards to IVF. There are seven well-known objections that people raise to IVF. These include: IVF is unnatural, IVF is risky for the children, IVF separates the procreation and marital aspects of marriage and ends up damaging the marital relationship and adoption is a better answer to the trouble of childlessness (Singer, 2010).

In this couples case the argument that IVF is unnatural may be true to a point, but as the author tells in the article someone once told her that every child is a gift from God. This is true now matter how it is that they child was conceived. The fact that this couple ended up with a healthy, happy child was indeed a natural occurrence from God. The second objection of IVF being risky for the child in this case was totally untrue. The surrogate mother had a lot of experience in carrying and giving birth to babies. She was a very healthy woman and had never had any issues in the past. There was very little risk to the baby for her to carry the pregnancy to term. The next objection of IVF separating the procreation and marital aspects of marriage and in the end damaging the marital relationship was totally untrue in this case. This couple had a very strong relationship and going through the process of gestational surrogacy strengthen their martial relationship as opposed to damaging it. The last objection of adoption is a better answer to the trouble of childlessness may very well be true for a lot of people. One cannot argue the fact that there are a lot of children out there that need to have good homes and there are many couples that could benefit tremendously from this avenue. But in the case of the couple in this article the idea of having a biological child was something that was very strong from them, thus making the path that they took the best one for them.

IVF, just like many other things in life, is a personal choice that people should be able to make without having to feel that they are stepping on someone's toes because they don't agree with it. There are many things in life that are right for some people and completely wrong fro someone else. People need to be given the freedom to make the choices that are right for them. No one should have these kind of decisions made for them.