Bioethics and Artificial Insemination

Bioethics and Artificial Insemination

With every new technology that is born, there must be many questions as to whether this technology is beneficial or harmful as well as analyze who is affects. This especially holds true in dealing with the technology of artificial insemination. With the cultural mainstreaming of artificial insemination, there have been many articles written discussing the ethics of such decisions. Most of these articles are written by feminist authors with the purpose of discussing the impact of this new technology on women and how it affects their roles as mothers in society.

Daniel Callahan, however, chooses to convey his argument about the bioethics of artificial insemination through a male perspective in his 1992 article “Bioethics and Fatherhood.” He argues that since the beginning of artificial insemination, there has been a trend to overlook the male and his anonymous donation of sperm. His writing style is fairly easy to read and very straightforward in an attempt to convey his point to the general population. His opinion is obvious through his very one-sided argument as well as occasional sarcastic remarks. For this, he does not base many of his points on factual evidence but more abstract, logically deduced theory. His argument is that this man, the sperm donor, is biologically responsible for the newly born child and its life thereafter. He bases his argument around the responsibility of the individual, the technology that allows men to be overlooked, and the rights movement that has lessened the responsibility of the man in fatherhood.

Callahan begins his argument with the discussion of what it means to be a father biologically and morally. He relates these two terms by saying, “Human beings bear a moral responsibility for those voluntary acts that have an impact on the lives of others; they are morally accountable for those acts” (Callahan, 99). Callahan feels that voluntary sexual activity, and by extension voluntary sperm donation, falls under this category. This logic holds true to the entire argument and strengthens his case against the minimization of the father’s role in parenthood. It is based on the very concrete fact that if the man did not give his sperm, the child would not exist. This is a very simple, but very strong argument. Callahan then furthers his case on the morality of sperm donation by saying that even if the child grows up in foster care, if that foster father were to be unfit, the biological father would have a moral obligation for the child.