Читать книгу Bioethics - Группа авторов - Страница 44

Developments in reproductive medicine have, over the past 50 years, presented us with remarkable new options, giving us increasing control over our fertility. Effective contraception and sterilization procedures have separated sex from reproduction, while various infertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, have dramatically increased the possibilities for reproduction without sex. Fertile couples are now able to limit and space the number of children they are going to have, while those who were once considered infertile are able to have children.

There are also new opportunities to decide what our children will be like. Prenatal diagnosis of fetuses and testing of in vitro embryos allows prospective parents to decide not to bring a disabled child into the world, even without the use of abortion. (Those who accept the view defended by Patrick Lee and Rober P. George in the previous Part of this Anthology will not be mollified by a procedure that still involves the discarding of a viable human embryo.) The same techniques allow parents to select the sex of their child. Cloning and genetic modification of offspring are now possible for several species of mammals, and some think that it is only a matter of time before they take place in humans as well.

A wide range of different issues are covered in this Part of the Anthology. Two interrelated clusters of questions, whilst by no means exhaustive of the ethical issues raised, are central to many of the discussions presented here: the limits, if any, to reproductive freedom, and the rights or interests of future children.