STORY: In 1985, for $10,000 Mary Beth Whitehead signed a contract and agreed to artificial insemination with William Stern’s sperm in order to bear him and his wife a child. In 1986, Mrs. Whitehead gave birth to a girl in New Jersey named Sara. Two weeks later, Mrs. Whitehead told the Sterns that she would not give up the baby. The Sterns filed a custody suit, the famous Baby M. case. Mrs. Whitehead tried to escape but was caught. After one year of litigation, the court awarded custody of Sara to Mr. Stern. This case reveals the legal problems that may result from new reproductive technology.
Background:
There has been increasing prevalence of infertility (about 10-15% of all couples are infertile) and the difficulty of adopting a child (2 years through a private agency, 6 years through a government agency).
Each year in Canada, there are over 6,000 women participating in artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs resulting in about 1,000 women giving birth to 1,500 babies (about 10 times in the US). The IVF success rate is about 25%.
o AI is the artificial introduction of sperm into the vaginal canal, for the purpose of conception.
o It can solve the problem of male infertility such as low sperm counts.
o AIH: artificial insemination using sperm from husband
o AID: artificial insemination using sperm from donor
o A surrogate mother is artificially inseminated by the male spouse of an infertile couple and is paid to carry the baby to term. Another method involves planting of embryos (of the couple) from in vitro fertilization.
o It can solve the problem of female infertility.
o Mature eggs are removed from a woman’s ovary and fertilized with sperm in the laboratory. After fertilization and incubation, the fertilized eggs (normally multiple eggs to increase chance of success) are placed in the woman’s uterus.
o It can solve the problem of unexplained infertility.
o Embryo replacement: fertilized eggs were placed in the womb of the same woman who donated the egg.
o Embryo transfer: fertilized eggs placed into another woman.
o The first successful birth of IVF baby was in 1978.
o Embryos are examined and screened for hereditary diseases or to determine their sex.
· Fetal tissue transplant is effective for sufferers of many diseases (such as Parkinson’s Disease, leukemia, diabetes, possibly Alzheimer’s and AIDS).
· New reproductive technologies can help otherwise infertile couples to have children of their own. The intent is to further the bond of marriage and is therefore morally justifiable. However, not all NRTs are justifiable.
· A general argument against such technologies is that they are interventions into the generation of life which is the prerogative of God. However, these technologies can be viewed as improvements to acceptable older methods of assisting conception (such as rhythm method or fertility drugs).
· The Roman Catholic Church opposes any kind of new reproductive technology. Their teaching is that sexual activity should only be for procreation and procreation should only be the fruit of marriage. Therefore, they regard children conceived by reproductive technologies as illegitimate. However, 1Co 7:3-6 teaches that companionship is an essential element of marriage, in addition to the procreative element.
o Sperms of husband (AIH): acceptable because there is no ethical problems
o Problems of using sperms of donor (AID): (a) the intrusion into the marital relationship by a third person resulting negative effects on the family and parent-child relationship [see Gen 16], (b) potential legal problem such as legitimacy of the child, (c) possibility of transmission of diseases such as AIDS, (d) possibility of incestuous marriages in the next generation, (e) possible use by single women and lesbians, and children from this procedure will be deprived of a natural father who exerts tremendous influence on a child’s life
o Problems: (a) the intrusion by a third person [similar to AID], and may disrupt the marriage, (b) the element of business transaction [selling one’s body for profit], (c) potential legal problem [the famous Baby M case] if the surrogate mother refuses to give up the baby, (d) possible use of the procedure by single women
o Some people try to justify surrogate motherhood by pointing to the case of Hagar (Gen 16), but Hagar was not a surrogate mother because she was part of the household. Further, this error of Abraham led to strife and envy between Arabs (descendants of Ishmail) and Jews (descendants of Isaac) today.
o Problems: (a) IVF often involves the destruction of extra unused embryos [which are lives], (b) risk of damaging the embryo in the process, (c) potential legal problems on the status of the embryos such as ownership, (d) embryo transfer has the same problem of third person intrusion, (e) possible use by single women, (f) health risk: significant increase in ovarian cancer [2 times higher for successful cases of IVF, 27 times for unsuccessful cases], (g) high failure rate [85-90%] meaning death of many embryos and huge expenses [>$10,000], (h) may need to kill some embryos if too many are successful
o The method should not be regarded as human creation of life because human eggs and sperms are used and the embryo must be implanted back to the mother shortly after fertilization.
o Problem of screening of diseases: unsuitable embryos [which are lives] will be destroyed
o Problems of sex selection: (a) it may destroy the natural balance of the sexes, the sex ratio may reach 130:100 instead of the normal 103:100 in India and in parts of China, (b) inappropriate preference of one sex (usually male) over the other
o Problems: it involves extraction of fetal tissues from a very cruel procedure of partial birth abortion. The cruel procedure is practised because fetal tissues obtained from normal abortions are not useful because the fetus is already dead. Some partial birth abortions are performed for the sole purpose of obtaining the live fetal tissues.
o Such research indirectly encourages more partial birth abortions.
o In 2001, US President Bush supported research using only adult stem cells and limited those using embryonic stem cells. This is a responsible pro-life position.