Description
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a group of procedures used to assist people in achieving a pregnancy. Recent advancements in the use and availability of ART treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), gamete donation and surrogacy have raised numerous ethical considerations.
This book explores reproductive concerns and opposing opinions on a range of issues including: the use of IVF by older women; success rate claims of commercial clinics; access by IVF offspring to the identities of their donors; the fate of excess frozen embryos; public funding of IVF; payment for egg donation; ‘social egg freezing’ by younger career women delaying motherhood; the dilemmas of preimplantation genetic screening; sex selection; the collection of gametes and embryos from deceased loved ones; mitochondrial donation and ‘three-parent IVF’; and commercial surrogacy arrangements.
Are existing guidelines and laws in Australia in step with the many ways we can now reproduce ourselves? Or are we going too far in dictating the terms of human fertility?