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Throughout the past several years, the gap between technological change and policy development has continued to grow at a rapid pace. As this gap continues to widen, Canadians continue to face important questions involving the social, legal and ethical issues involving newly developed technologies. Canadians are concerned with how these technologies will impact society as they are faced with the situation of technology developing at a faster pace than the issues they raise can be addressed. Many people are beginning to wonder if the federal government is doing its part to develop policies that will protect and promote human dignity and rights, ensure the health and safety of all Canadians and protect the best interests of concerned individuals. Is the government taking the initiative to protect individuals from the harmful developments in reproductive technology?
In order to understand how the government is addressing the issues of reproductive technologies, it is important to discuss how these issues are viewed by society. The inability to have one's own biological children is the key demand of couples that require the use of reproductive technologies. Some Canadians feel that infertility is a dysfunction of the body and should be regarded as a medical condition (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/nrgt/chapt-3.pdf). Other Canadians define infertility as a social condition because they believe the desire to have children results from the social pressure placed on married couples, particularly women, to bear children (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/nrgt/chapt-3.pdf). In an effort to allow infertile couples to produce their own biological children, new reproductive technologies are being introduced.
The government has taken steps to encourage and regulate technological development while ensuring that the values of society are maintained. The Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies is developing federal policies to regulate the scientific advancement of technologies by developing standards, licensing laws, information registries, health surveillance, and enforcement and compliance. However, Canadians are still confronted with important questions about the limitations of technological research and the legal issues raised by new reproductive technologies.
One of the main objectives that need to be addressed by the government is how to protect reproductive materials outside the body and protect individuals by making sure they give permission for their materials to be used. Consent plays a key factor in medical research due to the fact that failure to receive consent violates the principles of individual independence and respect for others.
There has been some ethical issues surrounding the development and use of technology, that would consist of some advancements, such as “when in vitro fertilization is applied in medical practice and leads to the production of spare embryos, the moral question is what to do with these embryos” (Shi & Singh, 2008, p. 182). As for ethical dilemmas that comes into play with “gene mapping of humans, genetic cloning, stem cell research, and others areas of growing interest to scientist” (Shi & Singh, 2008, p. 182). “Life support technology raises serious ethical issues, especially in medical decisions regarding continuation or cessation of mechanical support, particularly when a patient exists in a permanent vegetative state” (Shi & Singh, 2008, p. 182). Health care budgets are limited throughout this world, making it hard for advancements yet even harder to develop the advancements with restraints. Which brings us back to the “social, ethical, and legal constraints, public and private insurers face the problem deciding whether or not to cover novel treatments” 188. Similarly what was mentioned before the decisions about “new reproductive techniques such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection in vitro fertilization (ICSIIVF), new molecular genetics predictive tests for hereditary breast cancer, and the newer drugs such as sildenafil (Viagra) for sexual dysfunction” (Giacomini, 2005).
Bonnie Steinbock, in her paper entitled, “What Does “Respect for Embryos” mean in the Context of Stem Cell Research?” argues that using human embryos for embryonic stem cell research is immoral and illicit. She forms her argument on the “consideration of the human subject from the moment of conception” (Bioethics 592). The author supports her argument with five reasons as to why using human embryos for ES research. She explains that the moment the gametes unite, an embryo with human rights is formed. Building off of her first statement, the author explains that it is immoral and illicit to intervene in the development of an individual with rights in a non-favorable way, because
The main thesis of the chapter is the ethical, moral, and social issues regarding assisted reproduction (IVF), multiple births, and pregnancy at an old age. The chapter opens with Nadya Suleman’s decision to have her physician implant all her in vitro embryos into her uterus, which, lead to her later giving birth to octuplets. The physician who performed the embryo implementation had broken reproductive guidelines by implying more embryos than advised, and because Nadya had had disabled children from IVF prior, it was unethical. The next case of IVF involves the birth of Louise Brown. Her mother could not have children do to health reasons, and her eggs had to be fertilized outside of her uterus with her husband’s sperm. People praised this medical breakthrough for giving unfertile women a chance to still have children, however, critics claimed that this violated natural procreation and was therefore, immoral. Today, woman can donate their eggs, have them fertilized, and give the embryos to other women. A question asked in the chapter is
In vitro fertilization is a procedure to treat the genetic failure in the ovaries that allow a women to naturally conceive a child. Today’s advancements in technology has changed the in vitro fertilization market in many different ways. Personally being a product and witness of the “test tube” baby generation, I understand the happiness and completeness a family experiences when these procedures are successful. On the other hand, although people know a lot about this procedure, most don’t understand the negative effects it can have on families due to extreme technological advancements if government doesn’t enforce strict regulations on this market. I believe this market needs extreme government intervention in order to prevent the harmful future
...hnology. The Pandora’s Box of human germ-line engineering does appear beautiful from outside but if opened, many negative health and economic consequences can be unleashed. An international ban of human germ-line engineering is required to keep this technology under control.
Women have adamantly battled for political and social reproductive rights since, in particular artificial insemination, have become mainstream phenomena in the recent decade with a focus on rights of women. In fact, doctors have experimented with the procedure for nearly a century. However, with the women¹s liberation movement of the 1970s, physician-assisted and self-insemination has become more and more popular among heterosexual career women and lesbians.
The technology of today’s world is astounding. We have learned how to battle diseases that were once thought to lead to a certain death, we have invented incredible technologies that allow us to communicate with people across the world instantly, and maybe most impressively of all, we are able to create human life. We now hold in our hands the technologies that allow those who may not have been able to conceive naturally to have children they can call their own; children who will enrich their lives in a way nothing else can, and who will continue their names and lives after they are gone. In an age where we have more power than ever to use the bodies and DNA of others for our own benefit, it becomes increasingly important that we remain open-minded and fully understand both the disadvantages and advantages equally and create stricter regulations to control how we as a people progress our civilization.
At first glance, assisted procreation practices do not necessarily violate a child’s right to identity. The violation lies in the fact that the state is not taking a serious enough stance on regulating the issues that emerge from assisted procreation technologies. The state is voluntarily removing its responsibilities in regulating this field by allowing cases of donor confusion, the implantation of too many embryos and the disorganization of donor files. Instead of imposing criminal sanctions or punishments, the state is too often turning a blind eye.
Of the many social challenges we face globally today, there is one that is a much larger threat to the human population than others. That threat is the rate in which or population is increasing in all countries around the world, including Canada. Many people who live in the western and more developed countries of the world believe that this issue is isolated to the developing countries that are less educated in the use of birth control and contraceptives. Canada’s national population increases around 2% each year and around 4-5% a year in some of the Northern communities. The global world population is increasing at 1.06% each year, now, although that number does not sound incredibly high that 1.06
What do one think of when they hear the words “Designer Babies”? A couple designing their own baby of course, and it’s become just that. Technology has made it possible for there to be a way for doctors to modify a babies characteristics and its health. Genetically altering human embryos is morally wrong, and can cause a disservice to the parents and the child its effecting.
"Reproductive Technologies." Bioethics for Students: How Do We Know What’s Right?, edited by Steven G. Post, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 1999. Opposing Viewpoints in
English, V. (2006). Autonomy versus protection--who benefits from the regulation of IVF? Human Reproduction, 21(12), 3044-9. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/12/3044.full.pdf+html/.
Alongside pregnancy and childbirth, infertility has also become largely medicalized. If a woman is not able to bear a child, there is said to be something wrong with her body that is stopping this. Society will even go as far as to say that, “those who are childless are stigmatized as selfish and uncaring” (Becker & Nachtigall, 1994). Although times have changed, and women have received more rights, it is still embedded in society that women are supposed to be able to have children and raise them, so a woman who goes against this is considered
Throughout history, human beings have struggled to achieve control over nature. Now, in the twentieth century, with all of the scientific advances in computers and medicine, humans have come closer than ever to reaching this ultimate goal. However, along with the benefits of these new and rapidly increasing scientific advancements come moral, ethical and social issues that need to be given consideration. The Computer Revolution has not only vastly improved communication and produced amazing amounts of information, but has raised questions of human rights, privacy and social implications. While medical research has achieved medical benefits not even conceivable in the past, it has also raised major ethical and moral issues. Humans must consider all of these things when making decisions or judgments about human control over nature.
Bioethics is a reflection of controversial moral choices or decisions pertaining to medical and healthcare fields. There have always been ethical standards in healthcare handed down within each profession. Although ethical decisions of the past were followed without question, bioethics today is constantly debated among those in the medical field, the general public, and those in governmental positions. Technological advances within the last century have opened the door to discussion about the ethics surrounding the last medical and technological advances. The decisions are influenced by culture, religion, philosophy, and personal preference. Bioethical decisions are always open for questioning. It is even possible for issues to be ethical during one decade and upon review, deemed unethical several years later. It is the job of the medical community and the public to question these issues, debate them, and accept or reject them. Although there have been hundreds of people who have influenced bioethics through their technological advances, Sir Robert Edwards’ invitro- fertilization techniques have changed the way many women today can become a mother.