Reproductive Technologies: Part 2

Moral issues in IUI, GIFT & IVF

Whilst the use of rep. tech. might be permissible - not all uses of it will be acceptable.IUI (artificial insemination by husband AIH) - looks like it should be ok - but now hormone therapy is used by the woman to produce an average of 8-10 eggs and cause multiple pregnancies - the woman then has to choose which ones to allow to remain in the uterus, terminating the others.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

GIFT (gamete intrafallopian transfer) - again initially this looks ok - but unused eggs are usually fertilised and then held in storage in case the process fails - then if not required these will be destroyed.


IVF - literal meaning in glass - very expensive so all eggs harvested are fertilised and stored by freezing in case of failure so a repeat can take place - they can be kept for an average of 5 years, and success has been seen with one stored for 13. Additionally the woman may be pregnant with more children than the family want/can cope with, or her body can manage without endangering her own health.


IVF - literal meaning in glass - very expensive so all eggs harvested are fertilised and stored by freezing in case of failure so a repeat can take place - they can be kept for an average of 5 years, and success has been seen with one stored for 13. Additionally the woman may be pregnant with more children than the family want/can cope with, or her body can manage without endangering her own health.


What of the unused / unwanted embryos? (There are advances on freezing the woman’s eggs which might mean embryos do not have to be created - and hence destroyed if not used)Assuming we agree that life begins at conception then disposing of unused / unwanted embryos is the equivalent of abortion.Could they be used for stem cell research?They could be donated to another childless couple - preimplantation adoption - overcoming the need to remove a child from mother soon after birth.


What of the unused / unwanted embryos? (There are advances on freezing the woman’s eggs which might mean embryos do not have to be created - and hence destroyed if not used)Assuming we agree that life begins at conception then disposing of unused / unwanted embryos is the equivalent of abortion.Could they be used for stem cell research?They could be donated to another childless couple - preimplantation adoption - overcoming the need to remove a child from mother soon after birth.


We mentioned the possibility to have a high number of embryos successfully in the womb (4 or more can cause problems) - this can endanger the woman’s health (or the child). Selective termination can take place of embryos - like abortion to save a woman’s life. Considering this might happen could affect the way prolife proponents view IVF before starting the procedure.For Christians what happens to the embryos should be a major factor in deciding what treatment and how to progress and plan using rep. tech.In the USA there are now embryo adoption agencies.


Moral issues with surrogate motherhood

The woman bears the child, gives birth and willingly gives it up to a couple - the couple are happy to have the child and the woman believes she has done something “good”.Occasionally the surrogate mother decides she wants to keep the child.Gen 16:1-6, Gen 30:1-13 - twice we see surrogacy in the OT.Modern practice involves much legal discussion and agreement.

In India: Karen Kim, 34, center, from California, holds her son Brady, born on Feb.

2, 2006 by a surrogate mother, unseen, as she poses

with Dr. Nayna Patel.


Is surrogacy morally acceptable?Is it selling babies, have they become commercial items?In this is this like slavery? Does how we view human life affect the way we think here?Is any payment for gestational services - not for the child - after all it requires much time, energy, sacrifice etc.? Of note is the fact that the child is possbly genetically half of the surrogate and half of the man.

SAO PAULO — A 51-year-old surrogate

mother for her daughter has given birth to her

own twin grandchildren in northeastern Brazil, the delivery hospital

said.


Rae suggests that there appears to be potential for exploitation within this - a low income surrogate, high income potential parents (and some lawyers or brokers too) - this has not yet happened in the USA as surrogates are usually of average income though the money is a motivating factor. Noticeably one broker suggested that women from developing nations might need less than those from the USA - they are content with less and might get 10% of the “normal” fee. Is this the outsourcing of surrogacy?


Doctors in Chennai believe that surrogacy in India is preferred because Indian women, especially from poor and middle class families are less exposed to drugs, alcohol, smoking as that is one of the most important criteria’s for commissioned parents seeking surrogate mother’s profiles. “The women who we opt for surrogacy are between 19-35 years of age. And should have been married and need to have given birth to a healthy baby at least. We opt for surrogacy as our last option after IUI, IVF fail.” said Dr.Chandralekha, founder of Iswarya Fertility Clinic, who has helped 30 commissioned parents have surrogate babies.

http://ip.acjnewsline.org/groupB/leslie%20fathima%20madhu/production/surrogacy.html


http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/iui.html


http://www.iswaryafertility.com/cost.html




Doctors in Chennai believe that surrogacy in India is preferred because Indian women, especially from poor and middle class families are less exposed to drugs, alcohol, smoking as that is one of the most important criteria’s for commissioned parents seeking surrogate mother’s profiles. “The women who we opt for surrogacy are between 19-35 years of age. And should have been married and need to have given birth to a healthy baby at least. We opt for surrogacy as our last option after IUI, IVF fail.” said Dr.Chandralekha, founder of Iswarya Fertility Clinic, who has helped 30 commissioned parents have surrogate babies.









In Indian surrogates usually cost $6-10,000, in the USA - $40-50,000France has made illegal surrogacy - other countries have no regulations at all - it has been called reproductive tourism.

Rae also notes that surrogacy looks for women who will readily give up the newborn child they would have little attachment to the baby they carried - a trait normally which would be thought undesirable in a mother.


SURROGACY FEES & COSTShttp://www.indiansurrogates.in/surrogacy-fees.htm

Our fees are very cost effective because of our high success rates !-- cost of hormonal stimulation and egg retrieval cost US $ 10000-- cost of hormonal stimulation for the surrogate US $ 2000-- cost of hospital birth US $ 5000-- fee to surrogate US $ 5000Legal costs - US $ 3000Egg donor costs ( if applicable) - US $ 5000You need to pay a non-refundable fee of US $ 2000 so we can reserve your surrogate for you.


http://www.indiansurrogates.in/surrogacy-fees.htm

http://www.indiansurrogates.in/surrogacy-fees.htm

What happens if the surrogate refuses to hand over the child? Assuming she has given half of the genetic material then she has normal parental rights - and the father has shared custody rights too. Of course this depends on how you define motherhood.In the USA a surrogate has been decided to be the mother on the basis of providing the gestational environment and also genetic material - genetic surrogacy. If the case is of gestational surrogacy then the woman has no right to the child - she is simply a human incubator.


Legally things might be defined (in the USA) - but the arguments continue:Some claim even in gestational surrogacy the “incubator” has rights, others suggest a deal is a deal and no change of mind is allowed. There is also the question of when the gestational surrogate could become the actual mother - at what point as she has given none of the genetic material? A US legal precedent has been established saying gestational surrogates have no right to the baby or even visitation rights.


But is it right to think of the womb as simply a place of feeding and shelter - in effect prenatal babysitting. However in the womb not only physical but emotional and psychological bonds are formed.


Further and future considerations

The development of artificial wombs is taking place - a pregnancy devoid of relationship with the mother!Gender selection through IVF and screening prior to implantation, or sperm sorting for intrauterine insemination.A brain dead man “donated” his sperm to his estranged wife.


An Israeli soldier died - his family wanted to continue his line - his sperm was harvested and after a legal battle given to the family who hired a 25 year old surrogate he had never met, who became mother to his child.It is also possible for a pregnancy to be completed after a woman is brain dead - and sperm can be harvested after a man is brain dead.


Post menopausal women are now having babies through egg donation - it is more complicated and usually needs a C section delivery and has higher levels of pregnancy induced diabetes - Rae says the oldest is a 62 year old Rosanna Della Corte who gave birth in 1994 - India now has different claims!.


A 70-year-old Indian woman has become the world's oldest mother giving birth to twins. "If I am the world's oldest mother it means nothing to me," Omkari Panwar said after the arrival of the babies, a boy and girl born a month premature and weighing just two pounds each. "I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able."The babies' father is 77 years old retired farmer Charan Singh Panwar, who sold off his buffalo and burned through his life savings just to pay for the IVF treatment. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-07-04/news/17902805_1_birth-babies-oldest


http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-07-04/news/17902805_1_birth-babies-oldest




Rajo Devi Lohan gave birth to her daughter at age 70. Now, 18 months later, she is dying of old age.Rajo, a poor villager in northern India, gave birth to daughter Naveen a year and a half ago after undergoing in-vitro fertilization, reports FOX News. She and her husband Balla took out $3,000 in loans for the procedure. Rajo's womb ruptured during the Caesarean birth, however. And now, her child barely walking, she is bedridden.http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/reproductive-tech-outpaces-longevity-tech-oldest-woman-ever-give-birth-now-dying-old-age


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,594684,00.html?test=latestnews

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,594684,00.html?test=latestnews

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/reproductive-tech-outpaces-longevity-tech-oldest-woman-ever-give-birth-now-dying-old-age






Spiritual

Reproductive Technologies: Part 2