In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
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Test Tube Babies (In Vitro = glass)
IVF TREATMENT AND THE BENEFITS
• Sperm and eggs are fertilised in a laboratory
• Fertility drugs given to women to stimulate super-ovulation causing her to produce between ten and fourteen eggs rather than 1
• Allows women who have damaged or diseased fallopian tubes to become pregnant (when fertilisation would otherwise not be possible via natural methods)
• Super-ovulation means the couple can select the healthiest fertilised egg
• Eggs and sperm are donated to single women or homosexual couples
• Can be used on women who are post-menopausal
• Can be used by women who want their dead partner’s offspring
ISSUES
1. Personhood (the morality of discarding an embryo when it is considered a person)
2. The right to life (what is done with ‘spare’ embryos?)
3. The right to a child (do we have the right to have IVF treatment?)
PETER SINGER
• The probability of producing a child through IVF is 8%
• Singer accepts that the decision to destroy or conduct research on an embryo may be refusing a human being the right to life, but so is the decision to have protected sex or not to have sex at all. Therefore it IVF treatment is equally moral as the use of contraception or celibacy.
Genetic Engineering – Gene Therapy
There are two types of cell, and therefore two types of Gene Therapy:
Somatic – cells found in the body
Germ-line – cells found in the sperm and egg (are hereditary)
SOMATIC THERAPY
This occurs when a foreign gene is introduced to help the patient recover from a disease of deformity. For example, Somatic Therapy could cue sufferers of the condition Cystic Fibrosis.
GERM-LINE THERAPY
This occurs when changes are made to a gene effecting subsequent generations. Germ-Line Therapy can be used to eliminate an undesirable gene from the gene pool that will not reoccur in future generations.
ISSUES
• We do not yet know the consequences of germ-line therapy, and future generations are not able to express their opinion on something that will inevitable effect them
• The way in which the research for germ-line therapy is conducted may raise further issues for personhood and the right to life
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