Early life > Assisted reproduction

Biotechnology & the Human Spirit

Author / Source : Margaret Somerville Published on : Thematic : Early life / Assisted reproduction Studies Temps de lecture : 14 min.

Whether and when a child was conceived was largely a matter of chance (one could eliminate chance, of course, by not engaging in sexual intercourse, or reduce it by much less effective contraception than is available today). Where it was conceived was always in a woman's body. How life was transmitted to the child was through sexual reproduction. What genetic heritage the child received was determined by the natural recombination of the genes carried in the female parent's ovum and the male...

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The Freezing, Implantation, and Adoption of Embryos

Author / Source : Alain Mattheeuws Published on : Thematic : Early life / Assisted reproduction Studies Temps de lecture : 30 min.

The Freezing, Implantation, and Adoption of Embryos

In fact, we must ask ourselves what gives us the right to plunge an embryonic child into a ‘cold prison?' In 1987 Donum vitae addressed the issue as follows: “The freezing of embryos, even when carried out in order to preserve the life of an embryo—cryopreservation—constitutes an offence against the respect due to human beings by exposing them to grave risks of death or harm to their physical integrity and depriving them, at least temporarily, of maternal shelter and gestation, thus placing th...

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From Homo sapiens to Techno sapiens

Author / Source : Margaret Somerville Published on : Thematic : Early life / Assisted reproduction Studies Temps de lecture : 12 min.

Professor in the Faculty of Medicine Founding Director of the Faculty of Law's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University Children's Human Rights  to Natural Human Origin Some old and new phenomena – adoption is old, new reproductive and genetic technologies and same-sex marriage are new – have recently thrown the issue of children's rights with respect to their biological origins and biological families into the public policy spotlight and public square debate.   Adoption ha...

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