This paper traces the history of artificial insemination by selected donors as a strategy for positive eugenic improvement. While medical artificial insemination has a longer history, its use as a eugenic strategy was first mooted in late nineteenth-century France. It was then developed as ‘scientific motherhood’ for war widows and those without partners by Marion Louisa Piddington in Australia following the Great War. By the 1930s AID was being more widely used clinically in Britain as a (...) medical solution to male infertility for married couples. In 1935 English postal clerk, Herbert Brewer, promoted AID as the socialization of the germ plasm in a eugenic scheme. The next year Hermann Muller, American Drosophila geneticist and eugenicist, presented his plan for human improvement by AID to Stalin. Some twenty years later, Muller, together with Robert Klark Graham, began planning a Foundation for Germinal Choice in California. This was finally opened in 1980 as the first practical experiment in eugenic AID, producing some 215 babies over the twenty years it functioned. While AID appeared to be a means of squaring a eugenic circle by separating paternity from love relationships, and so allowing eugenic improvement without inhibiting individual choice in marriage, it found very little favour with those who might use it, not least because of a couple’s desire to have their ‘own’ children has always seemed stronger than any eugenic aspirations. No state has ever contemplated using AID as a social policy. (shrink)

Based on a case that happened in 2001 in China, the author wants to show the ethical and legal issues arising from a woman's wish, which should be her basic right to have a child by assisted reproduction technology. This paper attempts to analyse if there is some relationship between bioethics and happiness, and to find if there is some reason that bioethics should provide help for those whoever need it. The case is about a woman whose husband was sentenced (...) to death, she applied to court to allow her to have a child for her husband by artificial insemination of her husband. The conclusion of paper is that there is no direct relationship between bioethics and happiness, virtue and vice of bioethics not only depends on its moral background, but also the legal system, social psychology and other social circumstances. (shrink)

This paper is a comprehensive examination of the ethical issues surrounding artificial insemination. The interests of parents, AI children and society are identified and compared, and a variety of arguments for and against AIH and AID are examined. Although various criticisms of the natural law position are offered, this paper comes to the similar conclusion that donor artiricial insemination is not morally justified.

Artificial insemination was the first conceptive technology to be widely used in agriculture. Whereas at the beginning of the twentieth century all cows in England and Wales were mated to bulls, by the end of the 1950s 60% conceived through artificial insemination. By then a national network of ‘cattle breeding centres’ brought AI within the reach of every farmer. In this paper I explore how artificial insemination, which had few supporters in the 1920s and (...) 1930s, was transformed into an ‘indispensable’ method for reproducing cattle. I discuss the factors that made organised AI possible , including changes in cultures of cattle breeding, novel State involvement in bovine reproduction, the rise of new ‘animal breeding research’ centres at Cambridge, Edinburgh and Reading universities, war preparations and central planning by the Milk Marketing Board . I go on to show that the unprecedented focus on bovine reproduction set in motion by the AI centres effectively generated new networks of reproductive research, through these the ‘biopower’ of the farm was incorporated into the clinic. The example of AI shows that by combining the history of reproductive technology in agriculture and medicine we can give a richer account of modern reproduction. (shrink)

Artificial insemination using the husband's semen (AIH) has always seemed more acceptable than the same procedure using donor semen. However, the layman may not even have thought of the legal problems or the moral dilemma if in fact a woman is inseminated using her husband's frozen semen after his death. In the USA there are already sperm banks set up by private individuals, generally for the use of those marriage partners when the husband has had a vasectomy and (...) afterwards a child is desired. If such private sperm banks were set up in Britain complex legal problems would follow, quite apart from the moral issue as to whether it was desirable to bring a child into the world deliberately having deprived him of a father from the start. These are the issues which Mr Cusine thinks should be carefully considered before doctors, lawyers and the women potentially concerned are confronted with a new dilemma. (shrink)

In heterologous artificial insemination, the donation of gametes from a third person allows infertile and same-sex couples to become parents. Therefore, the child is genetica...

This paper explores some of the ethical implications of artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. In both cases the emphasis is on the interests of the potential child. It concludes that in neither case is great optimism or great pessimism appropriate. About AID, much of the legal and ethical concern has been other than child-centered, and has focused mainly on the interests of parents and donors. Three aspects expecially remain troubling: donor selection, record-keeping and disclosure and the testing (...) of frozen semen. About further IVF research, approval appears justified, as long as remaining concerns about risk/safety and need are satisfied. (shrink)

Artificial insemination has a considerable cultural significance in addition to its economic and technical impact. This study is the first to examine the history of its application to pigs, and uses evidence provided directly by both the scientists involved in its development, and some of the farmers who were among the first to use it, in addition to archival and published sources, to show how the scientific studies of the 1950s evolved into a widely available commercial product by (...) the 1980s. It describes the initial scientific work and quantifies the extent to which the technique was used at various points in time, showing that by 1990 nearly one half of UK pig herds were using AI for more than 25% of all services. It traces changes in the techniques employed and argues that these were the result of a multi-dimensional process of contemporaneous change. The various dimensions are identified firstly as authorities, meaning the people and organisations controlling the perception, administration, control, and so on, of the technique; secondly the discourses employed by the authorities; and thirdly the media by which the discourses were disseminated. Finally, it is suggested that this approach might be used more widely to examine the construction of other technologies. (shrink)

SummaryTwelve years' experience of AID in a non-NHS clinic is reviewed. Of 381 women treated, 230 became pregnant at least once; 308 pregnancies were achieved in 450 courses of treatment resulting in 263 live births. For women aged over 35 years the pregnancy rate was 47%. Timing of insemination and treatment with clomiphene are described. The use of fresh or frozen semen and future developments are discussed.

This paper investigates the efficiency of application of medical ethics principles in the practice of artificial insemination by donors in China, in a culture characterised by traditional ethical values and disapproval of AID. The paper presents the ethical approach to AID treatment as established by the Reproduction and Genetics Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya in the central southern area of China against the social ethical background of China and describes its general features. The CITIC-Xiangya Approach facilitates the implementation of ethical (...) relations between clinicians and patients participating in AID treatment procedures in Hunan-Yale. (shrink)

In May 1912, reports on successful attempts at artificial insemination hit the German papers. Over the following months, the topic was taken up in medical lectures, in the debates of medical associations, and in medical journals. The technique—which had not much changed since the days of James Marion Sims—apparently triggered the imagination of scientists, medical doctors, journalists and authors. That artificial insemination met such interest, however, was not primarily due to its medical usefulness or proven success. (...) Given that insemination with donor sperm was out of the question for most doctors and that ideas about the fertile period within the menstrual cycle were erroneous, contemporary attempts at insemination in humans hardly ever worked. Public interest in this topic rather reflects the desires and expectations which contemporaries associated with artificial insemination and with modern, scientific medicine. What appears to be a comparatively straight forward, low-tech operation today was imagined as a way or creating life artificially. Thus the topic was able to mobilise fears and expectations. The debate not only reflected contemporary beliefs about the possibilities and dangers of modern medicine, it also addressed the meaning of reproduction and infertility and the future of gender relations. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with only one of the problems encountered in selecting donors for artificial insemination, that of choosing suitable donors. In Belgium medical students have generally been the donors of semen but Dr Schoysman examines the other choices of potential donors and outlines certain criteria for selecting them: these criteria are more explicit than those outlined by Professor Kerr and Miss Rogers on page 32. He also touches on the question of payment to donors.

Artificial insemination and other fertilization techniques are today considered central to the history of reproductive medicine. The medical treatment of infertile couples, however, constitutes just a small part of the whole story of artificial fertilization. Lazzaro Spallanzani in particular, said to have been the inventor of artificial insemination, did not develop this method for medical purposes. He belonged to a generation of naturalists to whom artificial insemination was part of a heterogeneous series of (...) investigations that were undertaken to explore the natural history of animal generation. Questions concerning conception, the role of the gametes, the definition of species, the production of hybrids or livestock breeding were all included in these investigations. Thus, no one strain of thought, nor single set of ideas or interests, entirely shaped the development of artificial fertilization. (shrink)

Professor Dunstan has selected certain aspects of the preceding papers on artificial insemination by donor and subjected these to the scrutiny of a moral theologian.

Eugenicists in the 1930s and 1940s emphasised our moral responsibilities to future generations and the importance of positively selecting traits that would benefit humanity. In 1935 Herbert Brewer recommended ‘Eutelegenesis’ so that that future generations are not only protected from hereditary disease but also become more intelligent and fraternal than us. The development of these techniques for human use and animal husbandry was the catalyst for the cross fertilization of moral ideas and the development of a critical procreative morality. While (...) eugenicists argued for a new critical morality, religious critics argued against artificial insemination because of its potential to damage important moral institutions. The tension between critical and conservative procreative morality is a feature of the contemporary debates about reproductive technologies. This and some of the other aspects of the early and contemporary debates about artificial insemination and reproductive technologies are discussed in this article. (shrink)

Observing the practical situation of the techniques of assisted procreation in European societies, one is allowed to affirm that these techniques are largely in use in our societies, it did not find resistance among the secular groups of the society. It is not the case of the representatives of the Catholic church, hostile to each intervention on the reproductive mechanisms as being a violation against natural law, the most virulent opposition is linked to intervention on embryos or to each way (...) of reproduction outside of the canonic marriage, considering therefore artificial insemination as immoral and anti-juridical.The opposition between secular and the catholic groups is of unequal intensity in the different European countries, it did not stop the application and the use of these reproductive techniques although it made the adoption difficult of measures in some states, and even in the European Parliament. However, they could not oppose the scientific and medical corporation and their arguments of treatment of diseases and of sterility of men or women. This way to present these reproductive techniques in terms of lowering of suffering of couples not able to reproduce naturally received a full social acceptance and legitimation, acceptation because the origin of these techniques is incontestably scientific and legitimation because the goal is essentially medical. (shrink)

The potential benefits of an alternative to physical gestation are numerous. These include providing reproductive options for prospective parents who are unable to establish or maintain a physiological pregnancy, and saving the lives of some infants born prematurely. Ectogenesis could also promote sexual equality in reproduction, and represents a necessary option for women experiencing an unwanted pregnancy who are morally opposed to abortion. Despite these broad, and in some cases unique benefits, one major ethical concern is the potential impact of (...) this emerging technology on abortion rights. This article will argue that ectogenesis poses a challenge to many common arguments in favour of a pregnant woman’s right to choose, but only insomuch as it highlights that their underlying justifications for abortion are based on flawed conceptions of what the foetus and pregnancy actually are. By interrogating the various interests and relationships involved in a pregnancy, this article will demonstrate that the emergence of artificial gestation need not impact existing abortion rights or legislation, nor definitions of independent viability or moral status. (shrink)

Si, depuis quelques dizaines d'années, la médecine de la reproduction s'est considérablement développée pour venir en aide aux couples confrontés à l'impossibilité de concevoir naturellement un enfant, c'est généralement avec l'objectif initial de favoriser une conception avec les gamètes du couple. Le développement successif de l' " Insémination Artificielle " et de la " Fécondation in Vitro " a néanmoins permis dans le même temps de faire émerger différentes possibilités alternatives de conception, en transgressant notamment le principe de la filiation (...) biologique. Un couple peut aujourd'hui concevoir un enfant avec d'autres gamètes que les siens et même envisager l'accueil d'un embryon conçu par un autre couple. Dans ces situations, la question de la conciliation des intérêts des différents acteurs se pose. En optant pour la règle de l'anonymat des dons qui prive l'enfant de toute information sur le donneur, certaines législations semblent considérer que ce principe allie au mieux ces intérêts. Pourtant non seulement la demande croissante de levée de l'anonymat formulée par les enfants issus de l'assistance médicale à la procréation fragilise ce choix de société mais certains pays ont devancé ce voeu en choisissant la transparence génétique. Cet ouvrage est le fruit de riches débats et réflexions échangés entre juristes, médecins, psychanalystes et sociologues, lors du premier Workshop du Réseau Universitaire International de Bioéthique. Adoptant une approche comparative, les articles rassemblés examinent la manière dont sont organisées, dans seize pays de cultures différentes, les pratiques et les conséquences d'un anonymat absolu, relatif, voire inexistant. En dépit d'une diversité de systèmes, un constat unanime ressort : la question de la levée de l'anonymat se pose partout avec acuité. La réponse, elle, réunit ou divise. Mais peut-il en être autrement sur un sujet qui touche aux perceptions sociales de l'identité de la personne, de la filiation ou de la " parentalité "? Créé en 2007, le Réseau Universitaire International de Bioéthique a pour objectif de promouvoir la recherche universitaire en rapprochant des chercheurs, de pays et, de cultures différents, spécialistes des questions liées aux pratiques biomédicales. Partant d'une approche croisée des différents systèmes juridiques, les travaux de ce réseau analysent les choix sociaux en matière biomédicale à travers les prismes de l'éthique, de l'anthropologie, la philosophie ou la sociologie. Ils veulent ainsi contribuer à la réflexion internationale sur la régulation des pratiques biomédicales et, incidemment, sur la conciliation entre les diversités culturelles et un certain universalisme, terreau d'une harmonisation du droit. Cette nouvelle collection sera donc un outil indispensable pour toute personne en quête d'une compréhension des enjeux sociaux de la bioéthique. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 158 But his analysis shows how it can distinguish as well as relate opposed positions, and so shows how theology contributes to our hope for a common community in and with vigorous dissent from each other. Loyola College of Maryland Baltimore, Maryland JAMES J. BUCKLEY Religion and Artificial Reproduction: An Inquiry into the Vatican "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the (...) Dignity of Human Reproduction." By THOMAS A. SHANNON and LISA SowLE CAHILL. New York: Crossroad, 1988. $17.95 (cloth). This volume supplies a great deal of useful information on this in· struction which it prints in full in an appendix. Chapter 1 supplies an up-to-date survey of available reproductive technologies. Chapter 2 summarizes the Catholic tradition on sexual morality. Chapter 3 an· alyzes the Instructions, and 4 compares this to the regulations of the American Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1979), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1983), the American Fertility Society (1986), the British Medical Resarch Council (1982), the British Medical Association (1982) the Warmock Report (1984), the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (1982) and the Victoria Government Committee (1982, 1983, 1984). Chapter 5 reports American reactions including those of Cardinal Bernadin and Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk, theologians Richard A. McCormick, S.J. and James T. Burtchaell, C.S.C., and the columnist Charles Krauthammer. In Chapter 6 the authors draw their own conclusion. They think the Instruction has performed a service in calling attention to the need to set reasonable limits on the use of reproductive technologies, but they believe " The Vatican's call for legal prohibition of all reproduction technologies that eliminate sexual intercourse extends further than is morally necessary" (p. 138). They show, correctly, Humanae Vitae's principle of the inseparability of the unitive and procreative meaning of the marital act is the guiding principle by which the Instruction limits technological reproduction, but they reject this principle and propose in its stead that it is " the committed love relationship of the couple in its totality that gives the moral texture both to their sexuality and to their subsequent role as parents ", since " it is from the wholeness of the relationship that their specific physical acts of sex and 154 BOOK REVIEWS conception take their moral purpose. " Hence they would only exclude technologies that use gametes from donors other than the married couple. They omit discussion of another important principle proposed by the Instruction, namely the right of the child to be born of legitimate parents in a normal manner. They themselves seem to admit that the principle they propose to limit permissable techniques is not very helpful since after excluding donor methods they add, " although the authors recognize that further discussion may be necessary to clarify this point" (p. 138). In fact, couples consenting to insemination of the woman with a donor's sperm or contracting with a surrogate mother can easily justify their action as contributing to the wholeness of their loving relationship. Theologians who use this principle without further specification are logically forced to accept homosexual marriages and the artificial production of children for such marriages. This book simply ignores such obvious objections to their proposal. Indeed it does not seriously address in any detail the problem which the Instruction faces frankly and honestly, namely, what kind of reproductive acts are consistent with the totality of a committed loving relationship. Certainly, as the authors admit, some kinds of acts are not consistent with such a relationship, but they do not show critically how the principle they want to substitute for that of the Instruction can determine which reproductive technologies are not morally acceptable. The Instruction, on the contrary, took the necessary responsibility of proposing such a specification, by defining the structure of the marital act which is essential to this relationship. This does not mean that it defines it merely in its physical character, but in its specifying moral intention (its moral object) as an act which keps intact the intrinsic relation between the expression of love and the transmission of life. Since the authors never explain why this principle, so deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition, is false, nor... (shrink)

No other cluster of medical issues affects the genders as differently as those related to procreationcontraception, sterilization, abortion, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and genetic screening. Rosemarie Tong s approach to feminist bioethics serves as a catalyst to bring together different feminist voices in hope of actually doing something to make gender equity a present reality rather than a mere future possibility.".

Rabbi Bleich is one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject of Jewish perspectives on the ethical questions which arise in the wake of modern medical technology. In these essays, which are intended for all who are concerned with these issues, Rabbi Bleich covers such questions as the care of the terminally ill, including the vexing issue of whether the family may decide to withhold information from the person who is terminally ill, artificial insemination, genetic engineering the (...) moral status of the handicapped. AIDS, and immoral medical experimentation. (shrink)

In Morals and Medicine a leading Protestant theologian comes to grips with the problems of conscience raised by new advances in medical science and technology. They arise as issues at the start or making of a life, in preserving its health, and in facing its death. They are the problems of Everyman: some are new problems of conscience, such as artificial insemination; some are old problems in new dimensions, such as euthanasia. Modern medicine provides such a high degree (...) of control over health and vital processes that men must inevitably shoulder the burden of intelligent decision, and shoulder it as rationally as possible. Thus far, only Roman Catholic moralists have worked out a coherent ethics of medical care. Morals and Medicine is a new and independent analysis of the morals of life and death, striking out along the line of the values of personality rather than of mere physiological life itself. It offers a modern and at the same time Christian concept of right and wrong for all who are involved: the patient, the doctor and nurse, the pastor, and the family and friends. Originally published in 1954. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. (shrink)

In this paper, I attempt to bring together two topics that are rarely put into conversation in the philosophical bioethics literature: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer family equality on one hand, and, on the other, the morality of such alternative reproductive practices as artificial insemination by donor, egg donation, and surrogacy.2 In contrast to most of the philosophical bioethics literature on ARP, which has little to say about queer families, I will suggest that the ethics of ARP and (...) the respect for and protection of queer families are, in fact, intimately related topics.The connection can be clearly seen by considering the shape of the LGBQ rights.. (shrink)

Examines the ethical dilemmas created by contemporary biomedical advances, describing the techniques, applications, and ethical, legal, moral, and social ramifications of such developments as artificial insemination, cloning, prenatal screening, redesigne.

Couples should not be allowed to select either for or against deafnessRecently, a US couple deliberately attempted to ensure the birth of a deaf child via artificial insemination.1 In opposing this action, I wish to focus on one argument they employ to support it, namely that in trying to have a deaf child, the women see themselves as no different from parents trying to have a girl. Girls can be discriminated against the same as deaf people and “black (...) people have harder lives”, one of them argues. They compare themselves to a minority group.2In using this argument to justify their attempt to secure the birth of a deaf child, they make four claims: It is not wrong to deliberately try to have a child who is expected to experience harm when the harms the child will experience are socially imposed. As a group experiencing socially imposed harms, the deaf are to be understood as a minority group. Women and people of colour also experience social harms, and are to be understood as minority groups. Because the deaf, women, and people of colour are all groups experiencing socially imposed harms, distinctions should not be made between attempts to have a child who will be a member of one of these groups.In reply, I will advance two arguments. First, I will argue that this couple’s decision is inherently just. Here I will acknowledge that this couple’s position draws a great deal of strength from its appeal to the experiences of women. My second argument will contend, however, that despite the reasonableness of this choice, the intentional selection of deaf children is indefensible. Granting this couple’s contestable assertion that the deaf ought to be understood as a minority cultural group, allowing individuals to secure the birth of deaf …. (shrink)

“Because those who come after us may not be like us, or because those like us may not come after us, or because after a time there may be none to come after us, mankind must now set to work to insure that those who come after us will be more unlike us. In this there is at work the modern intellect’s penchant for species suicide.” With these words Paul Ramsey brings to a conclusion his provocative and surprising study of (...) the problems we are encountering – and will encounter – as scientific advances make the genetic control of man a real possibility. Now, increased knowledge of chromosome structure has taken the alteration of the human race out of the realm of science fiction and placed it in the hands of laboratory scientists. Ramsey sees this advance in science and technology as a mixed blessing. He examines the ramifications of genetic control, not only the now common measures of birth control and artificial insemination, but also the effect on the genetic pool of the increasing numbers of genetically poor individuals. His concern for humanistic values informs each argument as he tackles such issues as asexual reproduction of men, frozen semen banks, and the breeding of human beings for special purposes. No less than the future of man as we know him hangs on these issues. One must pay particular attention to this book. (shrink)

New Jersey's Baby M case has thrust the issue of surrogate motherhood on state legislatures throughout the country. Like artificial insemination in the 1950s and 1960s, this new reproductive technology is evoking legislative responses ranging from horrified prohibition to cautious facilitation.

Combining scientific understanding and Christian insight, this is a comprehensive and magisterial discussion of the theology of sexual ethics, ranging from sexual relationships and gender equality to birth control and artificial insemination.

The purpose of the Instruction Dignitas personae, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is not only to reaffirm the validity of the teaching laid out in Donum vitae (1987), with regard to both the principles on which it is based and the moral evaluations which it expresses, but to add needed clarification on reproductive technologies in the light of more recent developments. In addition to the reproductive technologies discussed in Dignitas personae, namely, homologous and heterologous (...) class='Hi'>artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, the author also discusses other reproductive technologies, not covered by the Instruction, such as gamete intrafallopian transfer, zygote intrafallopian transfer, tubal embryo transfer, and pronuclear-stage embryo transfer. After analyzing each of these the author offers a general ethical evaluation. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.1 (Spring 2010): 51–59. (shrink)

This paper traces the history of the Animal Research Station, Cambridge from its establishment in 1932 to its closure in 1986. The author worked there for forty years and was Director from 1979. Originally set up as a field station for Cambridge University’s School of Agriculture, the Station was expanded after World War II as the Agricultural Research Council’s Unit of Animal Reproduction. Beginning with semen and artificial insemination, research at the Station soon embraced superovulation and embryo transfer (...) in farm animals. Many other technologies were also developed here, including IVF in pigs, cloning by nuclear transplantation of early embryonic cells, and the first genetically modified farm animals in Britain. This account recalls the Directors of the Station and their research teams together with details of their pioneering contribution to reproductive biology. (shrink)