BIOETHICAL ISSUES ON

CURRENT REPRODUCTIVE
TECHNOLOGY
IN VITRO FERTILIZATION (IVF)
• INFERTILITY has traditionally been an area of
medicine in which physicians had limited means to
help their patients.
• Current reproductive technology has successfully
treated millions of infertile couples.
• The landscape of this field changed
dramatically with the announcement of the
birth of Louise Brown in 1978 through in vitro
fertilization (IVF).
• However, the explosion of this technology has
introduced a myriad of new social, ethical, and
legal challenges.
• THE ETHICAL STATUS OF AN EMBRYO
• there is an important distinction to be made
between when a ‘human life’ begins and when a
‘person’ begins.
• The former (‘human life’) is a biological question
– and our best understanding is that human life
begins when the human egg is fertilized by
sperm or otherwise stimulated to cause cell
division to begin.
• The latter is an ethical question – as the
concept of ‘person’ relates to a being capable
of bearing the full range of moral rights and
responsibilities.
• There are a range of other ethical issues IVF
gives rise to:
• the quality of consent obtained from the
parties
• the motivation of the parents
• the uses and implications of pre-
implantation genetic diagnosis
• the permissibility of sex-selection (or the
choice of embryos for other traits)
• the storage and fate of surplus embryos.
• For most of human history, it was held that a human only
became a person after birth. Then, as the science of
embryology advanced, it was argued that personhood
arose at the moment of conception – a view that made
sense given the knowledge of the time.

• However, more recent advances in embryology have shown

that there is a period (of up to about 14 days after
conception) during which it is impossible to ascribe identity
to an embryo as the cells lack differentiation.

• Given this, even the most conservative ethical position (such

as those grounded in religious conviction) should not disallow
the creation of an embryo (and even its possible destruction
if surplus to the parents’ needs) within the first 14 days.
• Some people object to the artificial
creation of a life that would not be
possible if left entirely to nature. Or
they might object on the grounds that
‘natural selection’ should be left to do
its work. Others object to conception
being placed in the hands of mortals
(rather than left to God or some other
supernatural being).
• Ethical Theories
IVF is loaded with a host of moral weakness and
failures
Fetal life and development does not occur in normal
copulation but in the petri dish?

• Christianity/health care providers

must not endorsed all types and kinds of assisted
reproductive technology except for AIH because it is a
justifiable act.

•
• IN VITRO FERTILIZATION (IVF)
Artificial process through which the egg cells are fertilized
by the sperm outside of the woman’s reproductive tract
Used in achieving fertilization of the male and female
gametes outside the body of a woman
Fertilization “within a glass”; laboratory fertilization
In vitro is derived from the Latin word which means “in
glass” that historically refers to glass containers like test
tubes, petri dishes and beakers which are used during the
experimentations conducted for the purpose of fertilizing
the egg and the sperm cell.
Babies conceived through IVF are called “test tube
babies”
 CLICK THE LINKS PLEASE
How in vitro fertilization (IVF) works
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P27waC05Hdk

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Treatment | Step by Step IVF

Procedure
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xHUA_fiQ4
• The ethical issues surrounding IVF technology--the status
of the embryo, cryopreservation, and the selection of IVF
recipients--are explored.
• These issues and the resulting dilemmas need to be
examined by each individual nurse as the unique needs
of IVF couples are a challenge to the nursing profession.
Many questions arise regarding the role of the nurse in this
new dimension of health care.
• It is therefore incumbent upon physicians to continually
monitor these issues and ensure that current reproductive
technologies are offered and delivered in a manner that
balances patient care with social and moral
responsibility.
 REFERENCES
• https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/2012/686253/
• https://ethics.org.au/the-ethics-of-in-vitro-fertilization-
ivf/