bio9

Reading Assignment

Chapter 8

UNIT 9 – Assignments

Assignment 1Review question A

Assignment 2 Review question B

Assignment 3 Review question D

Assignment 4In the News – page 182

Assignment 5 Please read and post your comments on the New York Times article “Some I.V.F. Experts Discourage Multiple Births by Jane Brody, October 10, 2016.

Assignment 6 Please read and post your comments on the New York Times article “Birth of Octuplets Puts Focus on Fertility Clinics” by Stephanie Saul – February 12, 2009

Fetal Development

The penetration of the egg by the sperm us usually followed twenty-two hours later by syngamy, the alignment if maternal and paternal chromosomes to form a new genotype (genetic makeup).

At this time there is a full genetic code such as the sex, hair color, skin color, and various other attributes are already determined.

The zygote comes into being in the first 24 hours.

Implantation – In about 14 days, two weeks into the pregnancy, the zygote settles (implants) into the uterine wall and enters a stage when it is described as an embryo.

The rudimentary eyes, ears, kidneys, and liver for not work yet.

Fetus - At eight weeks the first neural cells start differentiating. This entity is called a fetus and will remain so until birth.

In the third month the fetus begins to move and by the fouth month the mother can feel the movement.

The point at which the mother can sense the fetus moving is called quickening.

By the fifth month, the fetus can feel pain.

In the sixth month, the fetus becomes viable (ability to live outside the womb). With modern technology, this occurs by week 28

By the seventh month the fetus has neurons developed enough for minimal consciousness.

Birth generally occurs after nine months, but the baby is still completely dependant on the biological mother.

Assisted of Artificial Conception

Some couples desire children, but are unable to achieve pregnancy. These couples seek medical assistance through their own physician or through a fertility expert.

Artificial Insemination (AI)

Artificial Insemination is the injection of seminal fluid that contains male sperm into the female’s vagina from her husband or partner ( AIH), or donor ( AID) by some means other than sexual intercourse.

This is a very common procedure and there are few legal/ethical problems if the husband’s semen is used.

Problems that may occur:

If frozen semen is used from a deceased husband. Should the child be entitled to Social Security benefits? In a 1995 case involving frozen sperm, the child was entitled to receive Social Security Benefits.

If semen is used from a donor, the husband and wife should consent in writing to the procedure.

Legal status of newborn from donors – the donor is NOT responsible for child support if the husband and wife consented to the procedure.

Ethical considerations in AI

AID records, which contain the identity of the sperm, are considered confidential and handled in the same manner as adoption papers; they are not made a part of a public record.

Most states require that only a licensed physician should perform artificial insemination, this does not guarantee that it will be done in an ethical manner-in one famous case a fertility physician was convicted for using his own sperm.

The husband may resent his wife and the child if his sperm was not used.

The child may question his or her parentage.

In-vitro Fertilization

Ovum and sperm cell are combined outside of the woman’s body.

These cells are grown in a laboratory and later implanted into the woman’s uterus.

The physician needs to carefully explain the entire procedure to the couple, including what happens to the unused cells.

In most cases, the unused cells, even if they are fertilized embryos which is called the reduction of embryos

There are moral and ethical issues involved in destroying, or what some people call “killing” these embryos.

Some of the fertilized embryos may even be frozen.

Surrogate motherhood

An infertile couple who does not wish to adopt a child may use a surrogate or gestational mother who agrees to bear the child for them.

Conception usually takes place by means of artificial insemination using the husband’s viable sperm.

A contract is established between a couple wanting a child and the surrogate mother, who must give up the child at birth.

The couple may pay as much as $10,000 for the medical expenses.

Many surrogate cases end up in court because either the surrogate mother or the contractual parents changed their mind.

Baby M case-1986

Mr. & Mrs. Stern contracted with Mary Beth Whitehead to be a surrogate mother but after the delivery of Melissa Elizabeth Stern/Sarah Elizabeth Whitehead, the surrogate mother did not want to give up the child.

After a long court battle, the NJ Supreme Court granted continuing custody to the Sterns with overnight stays and visits with the surrogate mother.

Ethical considerations with Surrogate Motherhood

Is it right to ask the surrogate mother to give up all rights after she carried the baby for 9 months?

Should the child have an emotional or physical link to the surrogate mother?

With the relationship between the husband and wife be altered knowing that his sperm was implanted into another woman?

What is the sibling relationship to the surrogate baby?

Can the contract between the surrogate mother and the couple be enforced

Other ethical dilemmas include:

Potential court battles over custody of a child conceived outside of marriage.

Potential embarrassment for the surrogate mother whose actions some people have likened to prostitution.

Potential harm to the surrogate mother’s own children when they learn that she has given one child away and received money for that child.

Reducing birth to a legal arrangement and the exchange of money.

Surrogacy Arguments

Kantian arguments

Can be used to argue both positions

Utilitarian arguments

Very complicated utility calculations

The Abortion Issue

Abortion has become a major issue in the United States.

About 1.2 million illegal induced abortions are performed every year.

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable, or able to live outside the womb.

Spontaneous abortion is once that occurs naturally (miscarriage).

An induced abortion is caused by artificial means such as medications or surgical procedures.

1973 Roe vs. Wade decision

Constitutional right to Privacy

Balanced the interests of the women and the state’s interest

Gave strength to the argument that a woman should be allowed the right to have privacy over matters that relate to her own body, including pregnancy.

The Supreme Court adopted a three-step process relating to the three trimesters of pregnancy

First trimester- first three months, the decision is between the woman and her physician. The physician must be licensed in the state where the abortion takes place.

Second trimester-during the second three months of pregnancy, “The State, promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure un ways that are related to maternal health.”

Third trimester-The Supreme Court determined that by the time the final stage of pregnancy has been reached, the state has a compelling interest in the unborn chilled. This interest would override the woman’s right to privacy, and therefore justify stringent regulation of and even prohibit abortions.

A “negative right” provides liberty from interference but not necessarily access

Pro-life activists

Tend to be more traditional and religious.

They believe that sex should be reserved for marriage, if not merely procreation.

They believe that abortion is murder.

Pro-choice activists

Tend to be less traditional, less religious, and more career-oriented with higher incomes.

They tend to believe that sex is a natural expression

They believe that choice is personal liberty

Sanctity of Life Argument

If the fetus is a live human, killing humans is wrong.

Life refers to biological life

The quality of life has to do with the values individuals place on certain types of experiences.

The quality of life is subjective.

One of the problems associated with the pure pro-life view is that quality of life fir the fetus should not be considered.

Exceptions

Self-defense

Where the mother’s life is in danger.

Is a fetus human?

When does the fetus become human and possess a “right to life”?

Killing and Self-Defense

Killing for self-defense

Justification not provided when it comes to killing an innocent

You may not ethically push someone in front of a car in order to save yourself

Assessment if the multiple character of actions

Doctrine of double effect

Comes to us from the philosopher Thomas Aquinas.

The doctrine asks us to distinguish the intended effects of an action from other, unintended effects.

The doctrine has been used to justify the deaths of fetuses under certain circumstances that threaten the life of the mother.

Elements if the doctrine include:

The course of action chosen must be food or at least morally neutral.

The good must not follow as a consequence if the secondary harmful effects

The harm must never be intended but merely tolerated as casually connected with the good untended.

The good must outweigh the harm

Human or Person

Human on the basis of one’s genetic code

Status of person is only given to members of the moral community (entities with rights)

Does the unborn meet the criteria for personhood?

Personhood Criteria

Consciousness of objects and events

The ability to feel pain

Reasoning

Self-motivated activity

The capacity to communicate

A concept of self

Does the personhood criteria advance the abortion arguments?

Judith Thompson Analogies

The Thomson’s analogies are thought experiments that move the reader to an apparent rational conclusion.

They are useful as exercises in logic, even if they fail to fully convince.

Abortion analogies

The violinist

The rapidly growing child

The “carpet-seed children” – from failed conception

Do you feel that the Thompson analogies advance the argument in regard to abortion?

The Argument form Women’s Liberty and Priority of Life Plan

Rape, incest, and protection of the woman’s life

However, most common reasons for abortions deal with personal liberty and control over one’s life plan

Autonomous self-realization through the control of one’s life plan

Environmental Perspective

As the world population grows, we could overwhelm the world’s environmental resources

China, with its 1.4 billion people, has instituted a one child per family policy

Will this policy change?

Humans are part of the biotic community with a duty to maintain a balance of numbers with the other members of that community

Does this argument advance the abortion argument?

In Vitro Fertilization

Story of Louise Brown

London, England -1978

First test tube embryo/first test tube baby

First embryo transfer

Few ethical problems with process

In vitro fertilization is when the fertilized eggs are produced in a laboratory environment and then implanted in a woman where the embryo can be brought to term.

There are few ethical problems associated with the procedure.

The ethical problems arise from the number of embryos created, frozen and unused.

What legal status do these extra embryos have?

If they are to be discarded anyways, can they be used in biomedical research?

Ethical issues arise from:

Spare embryos from process-legal status

Harm to embryos from freezing

Path to “abortion in vitro”

Research with embryonic tissue

How to avoid problem of additional embryos created in process?

Can additional embryos be used in biological research

Sterilization

The termination of the ability to produce offspring

Males have a vasectomy

Females have tubal ligation

Elective sterilization

Voluntary sterilizations on competent individuals present few legal and ethical problems, as long as the proper consent has been obtained from the patient and the procedure is done properly.

Regulation of sterilization

Like abortion, voluntary sterilization is the subject of many debates concerning its moral and ethical propriety

Some health care institutions have adopted policies restricting the performance of such operations at their facilities.

Therapeutic sterilization

If the life or health of a woman may be jeopardized by pregnancy, the danger may be avoided by terminating her ability to conceive or her husband’s ability to impregnate.

Eugenic sterilization

The involuntary sterilization of certain categories of certain persons described in statues, without the need for consent by, or on behalf of, those subject to the procedures.

Includes those mentally deficient, feebleminded, and in some cases epileptic.

In some states, sexual deviates and persons classified as habitual criminals.

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