Ethics and the Basic Family Unit

Great Debates
1

This raises all kinds of ethical issues:

Australian Research Fertilizes Eggs Without Sperm
By Marie McInerney

ADELAIDE (Reuters) - Australian researchers said on Tuesday they may have found a way to fertilize an egg with cells from any parts of the body, rather than sperm, in a new study which offers hope to infertile men and even lesbian couples.

Australian infertility scientist Orly Lacham-Kaplan said early research on mice could produce a breakthrough for many men who have no sperm or sperm-making cells.

This is the group for which this kind of technique probably will be very helpful,'' she said. A lot of (these) people would like to father their own biological children.’’

Lacham-Kaplan said the research, if successful in humans, also theoretically could allow babies to be born without any input from men, although she admitted that such an outcome could open up an ethical can of worms.

``If, as a technology, it would be used as a treatment for infertile couples then I would accept it very well,’’ she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

``However I think we need to draw the line where it is used, and I believe a lot of ethical groups would draw the line.’’

[snip]

The mice experiments were expected to take up to a year.

[snip]

At the moment I feel there will be more problems than success, but if it is a success, it will be quite a good surprise,'' she said. It would be an incredible breakthrough.’’

From:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010710/sc/science_babies_australia_dc.html

Interesting? or Frightening?

Jois

2

Does this really raise ethical issues? I think the only thing this tech involves is making sure that the people who use it really really want to have kids.

So women could use it to reproduce without men? {yawns}
What’s the difference between any other technique of artificial insemination.

3

Just FYI, this is also being discussed in this thread.

A potential if rather stupid ethical consideration is that this could render men “useless” (whatever that means) and that since the offspring of two women will be female, men could become extinct.

Clearly that particular scenario is beyond far-fetched and whilst whimsically amusing is not particularly worthy of debate.

Not sure what other ethical problems there could be really. Seems like a Good Thing.

pan

4

Not really a reply to the subject at hand but some interesting trivia about the city of Adelaide, Australia.
It is also called - “Adelaide the City of Corpses”…Do to an alarmingly high number of horrific crimes committed there.

Again, just spouting off some useless trivia…Gotta use this stuff somewhere.