The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth

The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth
Author: Helen Watt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2016-01-08
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 131728383X

The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth addresses the unique moral questions raised by pregnancy and its intimate bodily nature. From assisted reproduction to abortion and ‘vital conflict’ resolution to more everyday concerns of the pregnant woman, this book argues for pregnancy as a close human relationship with the woman as guardian or custodian. Four approaches to pregnancy are explored: ‘uni-personal’, ‘neighborly’, ‘maternal’ and ‘spousal’. The author challenges not only the view that there is only one moral subject to consider in pregnancy, but also the idea that the location of the fetus lacks all inherent, unique significance. It is argued that the pregnant woman is not a mere ‘neighbor’ or helpful stranger to the fetus but is rather already in a real familial relationship bringing real familial rights and obligations. If the status of the fetus is conclusive for at least some moral questions raised by pregnancy, so too are facts about its bodily relationship with, and presence in, the woman who supports it. This lucid, accessible and original book explores fundamental ethical issues in a rich and often neglected area of philosophy in ways of interest also to those from other disciplines.

Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights

Embryos, Ethics, and Women's Rights
Author: Elaine Baruch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2014-04-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1317714261

Will procreation become just another commodity in the marketplace with “designer” sperm, ova, and embryos offered for sale? Will the attention and monies focused on the new reproductive technologies take away resources from infertility prevention, prenatal care, and adoption? If states move to regulate such practices, will this encourage widespread governmental interference in reproductive choice? How will society look at the biologically unique children who are the products of genetic manipulation--and more importantly, how will these children view themselves? This controversial book explores the answers to these questions that are frequently being asked as the battles over reproductive technologies and freedoms become more heated and touch more people’s lives. Embryos, Ethics, and Women’s Rights examines both the clinical and personal perspectives of reproductive technologies. Experts explain and debate the growing number of procreative possibilities--in vitro fertilization, genetic manipulation of embryos, embryo transfer, surrogacy, prenatal screening, and the fetus as patient. Some of the leading authorities in the field, including John Robertson, Ruth Hubbard, and Gena Corea, address the ethical, legal, religious, social, and psychological concerns that are inherent in the issues. Essential reading for every person concerned with control over basic issues of human destiny, Embryos, Ethics, and Women’s Rights provides unique and comprehensive coverage on the subject of technologically controlled childbearing and particularly its effects on mothers and their unborn children.

The Ethics of Abortion

The Ethics of Abortion
Author: Christopher Kaczor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Abortion
ISBN: 9780415884693

Appealing to reason rather than religious belief, this book is the most comprehensive case against the choice of abortion yet published. The Ethics of Abortion critically evaluates all the major grounds for denying fetal personhood, including the views of those who defend not only abortion but also infanticide. It also provides several (non-theological) justifications for the conclusion that all human beings, including those in utero, should be respected as persons. This book also critiques the view that abortion is not wrong even if the human fetus is a person. The Ethics of Abortion examines hard cases for those who are prolife, such as abortion in cases of rape or in order to save the motherâe(tm)s life, as well as hard cases for defenders of abortion, such as sex selection abortion and the rationale for being âeoepersonally opposedâe but publically supportive of abortion. It concludes with a discussion of whether artificial wombs might end the abortion debate. Answering the arguments of defenders of abortion, this book provides reasoned justification for the view that all intentional abortions are morally wrong and that doctors and nurses who object to abortion should not be forced to act against their consciences.

Beating Hearts

Beating Hearts
Author: Sherry F. Colb
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0231540957

How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal rights movements. Beating Hearts maintains that sentience, or the ability to have subjective experiences, grounds a being's entitlement to moral concern. The authors argue that nearly all human exploitation of animals is unjustified. Early abortions do not contradict the sentience principle because they precede fetal sentience, and Beating Hearts explains why the mere potential for sentience does not create moral entitlements. Late abortions do raise serious moral questions, but forcing a woman to carry a child to term is problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. These ethical explorations lead to a wider discussion of the strategies deployed by the pro-life and animal rights movements. Should legal reforms precede or follow attitudinal changes? Do gory images win over or alienate supporters? Is violence ever principled? By probing the connections between debates about abortion and animal rights, Beating Hearts uses each highly contested set of questions to shed light on the other.

Science and Babies

Science and Babies
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 1990-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309041368

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.

The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Author: Katrien Devolder
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2015-01-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191036234

Embryonic stem cell research holds unique promise for developing therapies for currently incurable diseases and conditions, and for important biomedical research. However, the process through which embryonic stem cells are obtained involves the destruction of early human embryos. Katrien Devolder focuses on the tension between the popular view that an embryo should never be deliberately harmed or destroyed, and the view that embryonic stem cell research, because of its enormous promise, must go forward. She provides an in-depth ethical analysis of the major philosophical and political attempts to resolve this tension. One such attempt involves the development of a middle ground position, which accepts only types or aspects of embryonic stem cell research deemed compatible with the view that the embryo has a significant moral status. An example is the position that it can be permissible to derive stem cells from embryos left over from in vitro fertilisation but not from embryos created for research. Others have advocated a technical solution. Several techniques have been proposed for deriving embryonic stem cells, or their functional equivalents, without harming embryos. An example is the induced pluripotent stem cell technique. Through highlighting inconsistencies in the arguments for these positions, Devolder argues that the central tension in the embryonic stem cell debate remains unresolved. This conclusion has important implications for the stem cell debate, as well as for policies inspired by this debate.

Abortion Rights

Abortion Rights
Author: Kate Greasley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2018
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1107170931

Presents critical and forcefully argued debate between two moral philosophers, setting out strong cases on both sides of the argument.

Women, Medicine, Ethics and the Law

Women, Medicine, Ethics and the Law
Author: Susan Sherwin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 811
Release: 2020-09-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000160696

This title was first published in 2002: A collection of articles focused on women within a general study of medicine, ethics and the law. Topics covered include: areas where the institutions of medicine, ethics and the law intersect in women's reproductive and sexual lives; the impact of legal policies and dominant ethical beliefs on many aspects of women's health; and the health practices and policies of bioethics and health law. The editors recognise that it is important not to lose sight of social differences other than gender, such as race, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, religion, level of physical and mental ability, and family relationships. In their approach they seek to consider the lives and experiences of women as primary. Hence, they focus on the question of how women's encounters with the health-care system are structured by gender and other socially significant dimensions of their lives (rather than the question of how women differ from the male "norm").

Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Author: Arlene Chiu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2003-08
Genre: Science
ISBN:

A discussion of all the key issues in the use of human pluripotent stem cells for treating degenerative diseases or for replacing tissues lost from trauma. On the practical side, the topics range from the problems of deriving human embryonic stem cells and driving their differentiation along specific lineages, regulating their development into mature cells, and bringing stem cell therapy to clinical trials. Regulatory issues are addressed in discussions of the ethical debate surrounding the derivation of human embryonic stem cells and the current policies governing their use in the United States and abroad, including the rules and conditions regulating federal funding and questions of intellectual property.

Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques

Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2016-04-17
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309388708

Mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs) are designed to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases from mother to child. While MRTs, if effective, could satisfy a desire of women seeking to have a genetically related child without the risk of passing on mtDNA disease, the technique raises significant ethical and social issues. It would create offspring who have genetic material from two women, something never sanctioned in humans, and would create mitochondrial changes that could be heritable (in female offspring), and therefore passed on in perpetuity. The manipulation would be performed on eggs or embryos, would affect every cell of the resulting individual, and once carried out this genetic manipulation is not reversible. Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques considers the implications of manipulating mitochondrial content both in children born to women as a result of participating in these studies and in descendants of any female offspring. This study examines the ethical and social issues related to MRTs, outlines principles that would provide a framework and foundation for oversight of MRTs, and develops recommendations to inform the Food and Drug Administration's consideration of investigational new drug applications.