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Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization
Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization
Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization
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Recommended: Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization
This written report focuses on the debate on whether people should be allowed to have “spare part babies”. It will also discuss further information about these types of babies, the procedure of their production, pros and cons, solutions to the regarding issues and a personal opinion.
A Spare Part Baby (Saviour Sibling/Baby) is a child born with a purpose; they are born to attain specific needs. They are selected through genetic screening to have an inborn characteristic that will help with saving the life of their older sibling, who may be affected with a serious disease which may require an organ or cell transplant to cure them.
Saviour Siblings are produced using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and are screened using Pre- Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). IVF is a process used to create a child from outside of the body. IVF is a treatment permitted to create embryos; this is done by mixing together the sperm and eggs (fertility drugs are taken to produce several eggs) in a petri dish intended to produce multiple embryos with each being genetically different. The best quality embryos are then chosen and implanted in the woman’s uterus. PGD is a screening of the embryos to prevent any inherited disorders. The procedure usually occurs when the embryo is about 6-10 cells according to size. Acid is then used to get into the embryo and one cell is drawn out; this cell is then screened to identify whether the fetus is a match for their existing ill sibling and whether it will develop a genetic disorder.
Pros and cons are positive (for) and negative (against) aspects of a subject.
Some approvingly agree with the creation of spare part babies because of the reason that before being born, they undergo a embryos screening to prevent ...
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...her argument was the feeling of being neglected if the child was born as a spare part baby. The only solution to the said issue is to not let the child feel unloved. These children should be cherished just as their older sibling that they helped; they shouldn’t be loved any less than they deserve, they deserve to be loved just as equal to their other sibling(s).
In conclusion, spare part babies are a difficult subject to discuss because of the possibility of being reflected as a good or bad person regarding your opinion. In my opinion, it is honestly difficult to make the judgement on whether to be for or against it unless I was in the situation. However, I have come to the conclusion that at this point, I believe in the idea of saviour siblings because they can save a life, in particular their sibling’s life and also because they will not be born as ill children.
Recent high profile cases, films and books all around the world including the UK, Australia and the United States have brought to the public’s attention a new type of IVF. ‘Embryo Selection’ meaning ‘Embryos are fertilised outside the body and only those with certain genes are selected and implanted in the womb.’ Henceforth meaning that doctors are now able to select specific embryo’s and implant them into the mother of who may have another sick child in order to gain genetic material such as bone marrow which will match the ill-fated child and therefore hopefully be able to save their life. Creating a ‘saviour sibling’. ‘A child conceived through selective in vitro fertilization as a potential source of donor organs or cells for an existing brother or sister with a life-threatening medical condition’ a definition given by Oxford Dictionaries (1.0). Cases of this are happening all around the globe and many are highly documented about. The most famous case could be noted as in the fictional book of ‘My Sisters Keeper’ By Jodi Picoult. I will further discuss this throughout my dissertation and how books and films can affect the view on certain ethical subjects. Furthermore, I am also going to discuss a range of factors such as certain religious beliefs and the physical creation of saviour siblings compared to the creation of designer babies. Strong views are held by many both for and against the creation of saviour siblings.
Research on human fetal life involves numerous complex medical, moral, and legal aspects. It is not always easy, nor desirable, to seal off one aspect from another. Both sides of fetal tissue use will be equally focused on as a moral issue. The topic is a timely and important one because research on human fetal life is reportedly a growing industry and the subject of legal developments both in the United States and around the world.
After the discovery of genetically altering an embryo before implantation, “designer babies” was coined to describe a child genetically altered “to ensure specific intellectual and cosmetic characteristics.” (“Designer Babies” n.p.). This procedure combines genetic engineering and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) to make sure certain characteristics are absent or present in an embryo (Thadani n.p.). The procedure also includes taking an embryo to be pre-implementation genetically diagnosed (PGD), another procedure that doctors use to screen the embryos (Stock n.p.). An embryo’s DNA goes through multiple tests to obtain an analysis of the embryo, which will list all the components of the embryo including genetic disorders and physical traits such as Down syndrome, blue eyes, and brown hair, for instance (Smith 7). Although the use of PGD is widely accepted by the “reproductive medical community” and the modifying of disorders or diseases is to a degree, once the characteristics are no longer health related “72% disapprove of the procedure” (“Designer Babies” n.p.). At this point the parents make decisions that would alter their child’s life forever and this decision is rather controversial in the U...
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
With the increased rate of integrating In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), there has been a steep inclination within the associated needs of specifications. Observably, the development of babies using scientific measures was initially formulated and specified for developing the diverse range of development associated with the same (Turriziani, 2014). However, these developments are noted to be creating an adverse impact on the natural course of events and subsequently, resulting with an adverse impact on the natural process of the development of babies. The initial integrations within the system of IVF for developing babies have further been initiated with the effective use of science to develop a healthy baby. Hence, the use of such progressions can be argued as not hampering the ethical needs associated with the same. Conversely, the initial progression within the same and the changes in the use of such practices are identified as unethical, as it has been acting as a threat in the natural course of development of embryos and altering the natural course of events, suspected to be imposing significant influence on infant mortality (Turriziani,
For many years, infertile couples have had difficulty facing the reality that they can not have children. According to Nidus Information Services Incorporated, 6.2 million women in the United States are infertile. This problem leads to many options. A few options have been used for a long period of time: the couple could adopt a child or keep trying to have a child themselves. For those couples that want to have their own children, there are new options arising. In vetro fertilization is an option that gives couples the chance to have a doctor combine the male's sperm and the woman's eggs in a petri dish and implant them into the woman's womb after the artificial conception. This may result in multiple pregnancies - more than five in some cases. This does not only occur in implantation, however. Many times the patient's doctor will ask her to consider selective reduction: aborting a few fetuses to save the ones she can. In a case of multiple pregnancy, selective reduction should be considered an option.
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.
Even if their baby is not able to live, they want to give another baby that opportunity. They want to give another family the opportunity to see their child grow. Sometimes the parents of an anencephalic infant want to donate the infant 's organs to other babies who need healthy organs. They say that, “by donating the newborn 's organs, they feel that the pregnancy would at least have had some value: their own loss can be another family 's gain.” In the United States, about 2000 babies each year need organs, and the only suitable organs for tiny babies are those from other tiny babies. However, there are also some parents who wish to keep their baby alive. ("3. ANENCEPHALIC BABIES
Another issue that arises is the potential personhood of the fetus. Many would argue that its poten...
Their hearts sank as they watched the child they had come to know and love as their own, be taken away by strangers that they had never met until today. As the CPS worker spoke with Mary she explained, “If you had just logged in her injuries acquired during the accident and told us what medicines you had used, this would not have happened.” Mary thought to herself “it was just a scrape… just a tiny little cut…” Many parents all over the world have gone through hardships like this one. If they even got to adopt at all. Many of the rules, regulations and prices agencies have come up with have been causing people all over the world to deter from adopting.
...take, “Nearly 160,000 children live in foster care or with relatives other than their parents” (Boonstra). As you can see, precious life doesn’t have to be wasted.
I believe that parents are not morally justified in having a child merely to provide life saving medical treatment to another child or family member, but that this does not mean that the creation of savior siblings is morally impermissible. By having a child solely to provide life saving medical treatment, you are treating this child merely as a means rather than an end to the individual child. By having the child solely as a means to save another, you are violating this savior sibling in that you are treating them as a source of spare parts that can be used by the sickly child in order to solely promote the prolonged life of the currently sick child. This view that having a child merely as a way to provide medical treatment does not consider the multitude of other avenues that this newborn child can take, and presupposes that the child will only be used for the single purpose of providing life saving medical treatment through use of stems cells or organ donation. What this view fails to consider is that these savior siblings are valued by families for so much more than just as a human bag of good cells and organs that can be used to save the life of the original child. Instead, these savior siblings can be valued as normal children themselves, in that they can be valued in the same way that any other child who is born is valued, yet at the same time they will also be able to provide life-saving treatment to their sibling. My view runs parallel to the view held by Claudia Mills who argues that it is acceptable to have a savior sibling, yet at the same time we can not have a child for purely instrumental motives, and instead should more so value the child for the intrinsic worth that they have. Mills presents her argument by puttin...
Abortion advocates ask “What about the mother?” and the prolife advocates answer “what about the baby?”- The Feminist Case against Abortion. Serrin M. Foster. Sept 2015. Web jan 2015. http://americamagazine.org/issue/feminist-case-against-abortion. This is a very serious subject in our society today. Almost 42 million induced abortions happen all over the world each year. This is 42 million unborn children that never had a chance or even a say in what their futures would hold. This is not preventing poverty; we have proved that, this is our country not holding anyone responsible for their actions. Those that have supported this action are just as guilty as those that have committed the injustice act. These children did not ask to be made
to consider the infants themselves, independently of the attitudes of their parents.” He agrees that
Prenatal genetic screening in particular is a polarizing topic of discussion, more specifically, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). PGD is one of the two techniques commonly used to genetically screen embryos in vitro; it is usually done at the eight-cell stage of division. PGD is most often performed when there is the risk that one or both parents carry disease-causing mutations. It is extensively used by high-risk individuals trying to conceive babes who will be free of particular mutations. PGD can test for over 50 genetic conditions and even allows for sex selection if there are underlying gender-associated medical conditions. When the results are satisfactory, the selected embryo is implanted into the mother’s uterus. While a controversial technique, preimplantation genetic diagnosis is one example of some of the good genetic testing can do, more benefits will be furthe...