Vito Fertilization And The Ethical Arguments example essay topic

The Process and Ethics Involving In Vitro Fertilization On July 25, 1978 the first successful in vito fertilization baby was born in Kershaw's Cottage Hospital in Lancashire England. Louise Brown as she was named brought forth a new hope and era for making babies especially for people who had been diagnosed infertile or sterile. This marked the first time that a human offspring had been created outside the body from the union of an egg and a sperm. The people responsible for this medical breakthrough were Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards whom had been trying to develop a method to conquer infertility. They were successful with Louise Brown and it has paved the way for many couples that cannot produce offspring for medical reasons that cannot be corrected. In this paper I will discuss the process of in vito fertilization and the ethical arguments involved in it.

Recent advances in the biomedical sciences allow us to intervene in, and sometimes take control of, the processes of life and death. Not only can death be kept waiting by the bedside by the use of medicine or machines, doctors and scientists can now also intervene in, and, initiate the process of life: cloning and in vito fertilization (Cooper and Glazer 34). It is not surprising that an ethics issue has now come into play, because of medical breakthroughs that enable doctors to create, prolong, or end lives. Although there is great enthusiasm behind these breakthroughs people still argue the fact that God created you the way you are and that's how it should stay. The argument to that point is that, why should these infertile couples miss out on the miracle of life, the birth of a child they created? Take the comments by a dean of an Australian Medical School on the teaching of medical ethics: Like any other lifelong clinical teacher I have firm views about such topics as euthanasia, continuing severe pain, acceptable and unacceptable risks of various treatments, the appropriate use of life support systems and numerous other matters of this sort which I discuss with my colleagues, assistants, and students but would not wish to teach dogmatically since much depends on the religious and ethical views which they may have and which also must command my respect ("Medical Ethics").

Since the study of ethics is all about what is right and what is wrong, it is not possible to come to a correct conclusion unless God directly appoints one. To begin with, I will provide the basic medical facts involving IVF to give a solid understanding of what goes into the whole process and what facts involving this process cause the questioning of the ethical and moral issues. Infertility affects about 4.9 million couples in the United States, or one in every twelve. Approximately one-third of infertility cases can be traced to causes in the female reproductive system.

However, a small proportion of infertile women can produce healthy eggs but, they don't have a normal uterus or they have damaged or diseased fallopian tubes which prevent the egg from passing from the ovary to the uterus (Singer and Wells 15). There are also some other processes of fertility treatments, one of them known as assisted reproductive technology (ART). The best and more commonly used is in vito fertilization (IVF). The concept of IVF is simple. Three small cuts are made in the abdomen below the navel, in the first cut a laparoscope, in the second a hollow needle just one millimeter in length and through the third forceps. While looking through the laparoscope the forceps are used to find the ovaries and maneuver it into a position to get to the egg, then with the hollow needle the follicle with the egg inside is punctured and the egg is sucked into the needle.

After that the egg is stored in a suitable fluid for six more hours to allow it to fully mature. The following step is when the husband or sperm donor masturbates and ejaculates his sperm into a sterile container. The sperm is then separated from the seminal plasma in a process known as sperm washing. This process is done several times in order to separate the most motile sperm in a sample from the non-motile. The egg is then mixed with the semen of the husband or partner in a laboratory dish containing an IVF culture medium, which is at the same temperature as a woman's body, so that fertilization can occur. In cases where the sperm count is low or very immotile there are specialized techniques such as micro manipulation to increase the chance of fertilization.

There are 4 types of micro manipulation; partial zone dissection in which a slit is cut in the outer shell of the egg, sub zonal sperm injection in which several sperm are placed underneath the zone to achieve the fertilization, intra cytoplasmic sperm injection where a sperm is injected right into the egg, and micro insemination in which the sperm are concentrated into a drop around the eggs. The fertilized egg, once it has started to divide and has reached what is known as the four-cell cluster, is then transferred back to the mother's uterus through the vagina and uterus, as it would be too difficult to go back through the fallopian tube. It is common practice to transfer more than one embryo to a potential mother whenever possible because of the normal hazards that come along with pregnancy, such as the egg not attaching to the wall of the uterus (Singer and Wells 8-9). Assuming there is no abnormality in the semen, the success rate of fertilization is usually at least 75%.

There are now more than 300,000 IVF babies worldwide. Patients stand in line for treatment, regardless of the stress, discomfort, and risks, and despite the fact that the success rate for the treatment is usually not better than 1 in 5 or 20%. This surprisingly high number of IVF babies that are being produced around the world, and the many more IVF attempts that do not produce babies, present a need for the discussion of the ethical, or unethical-ness of in vito fertilization. To call an infant born as the result of IVF a "created" baby is to imply that there is some difference between a child conceived and brought to term in this way and one conceived in the womb and carried through completely to term by the mother. To many religious people, the work of creation belongs, in the first place, to God, as it is outlined in the creation stories of the book of Genesis (Singer and Wells 178-180). The Roman Catholic Church uses natural law as their basis for argument against IVF.

There is a theory of natural law, which is widely taken to mean that God has made His laws and humans should obey them. The main issue of IVF that gets the most disliking from the church is concerned with IVF as "external" fertilization. A second feature of IVF that is challenged by natural law is the use of masturbation by the husband or donor to provide the sperm without which the external fertilization cannot go ahead (Singer and Wells 51-52) Another argument is that God chose certain people to be infertile and that they should adopt children. There are hundreds of children that are without parents, and I almost agree with the idea that they should be adopted before IVF is used.

These kids were born but for some reason are parent less. These children need love just as much as an IVF child does and it is heart wrenching how children can be abandoned. Many believe that even though couples cannot produce their own genetic child they shouldn't have to remain childless. They could make something good out of a seemingly bad thing by giving a child without a family a home, love, and a life, through adoption. There is an alternative to infertility without relying on scientists, test tubes, and small chances. They can create their own miracle by giving life to an already-born deserving child.

Besides the issues stated above, there are many more arguments concerning the ethical ness of in vito fertilization. I do not believe one single conclusion can ever be drawn from these arguments. One can form his or her own personal opinion, but there will never be a single right or wrong answer. Based on the arguments I have read and learned about while writing this paper, I have drawn my own conclusions regarding the ethical ness of in vito fertilization.

I believe an embryo of IVF is a human being from the moment of conception and therefore its life should be treated just the same as a child that was not conceived through IVF. There is no difference, all of the same "ingredients" are used, there is just a different way that the child was created.