Embryo Technoligies KU And A Flashcards
Since Louise Brown, the first In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) baby born in 1978 in the UK, IVF as an embryo use has become widely accessed. IVF is a reproductive technique that supports individuals and couples to have children despite physical conditions that are preventing them from doing so naturally.
One positive impact of IVF is that according to the HFEA data from 1991 there have been around 1.3 million IVF cycles and over 260,000 donor insemination (DI) cycles, resulting in over 390,000 babies born in the UK from IVF.
The HFEA is a secular UK organisation that governs embryo technologies guided by the 14-day rule established by Mary Warnock permitting IVF and other ARTs such as PGD, saviour siblings, 3 parent embryos and surrogacy. According to the law, The HFEA supports the 14-day rule created by Mary Warnock in 1990. It states that the primitive streak becomes visible at 14 days and prior to this disposal of embryos is not akin to murder.
An impact of this is that the HFEA in line with the UK law supports many ARTs allowing couples to go through procedures such as IVF and PGD and that these procedures are legally acceptable and not akin to murder.
The major moral issues that arise from IVF are to do with whether the embryo is a person or has any rights from conception. One impact of IVF is the number of spare embryos that can be left over. Consequently, this leads us to question how morally acceptable is it to destroy or research on spare embryos. Is this considered murder of any sort?
The HFEA response would be that it is not immoral as the UK law determines that prior to 14 days the embryo is not a person nor has rights and so to destroy the blastocysts is acceptable and ideally if they can be used for research the benefits for possible cures eg for Parkinson’s or spinal injuries would make it a worthy pursuit.
“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong” Jeremy Bentham.
The consequence of this quote is that an Act Utilitarian’s response to embryo use would be based on the equity, consequentialist and hedonic principle, and use of the hedonic calculator.
An impact of util view on embryo tech
An impact of this is all embryo technology uses would be assessed on a case-by-case basis and not all cases would meet the criteria.
Since IVF, there have been more embryo technologies developed such as Preimplantation Genetic diagnosis (PGD); a technology used in conjunction with IVF to screen embryos for inheritable genetic diseases.
The positive impact of this is that only unaffected embryos are implanted to prevent passing on the life limiting condition.
One moral issue consequently arising from PGD is whether this could lead to designer babies, ableism or even eugenics.
A Utilitarian response could lead to wide scale support of PGD as the long-term consequences for society could be deemed beneficial and cost effective for the NHS when considering the extent feature of the hedonic calculus.
For PGD a utilitarian would likely use the hedonic calculator and weigh up the benefits and risks associated with the inheritable disease. Consequently, they would consider the duration and certainty features of the calculus as the impact of guaranteed lifetime without that illness would tip the happiness scales.
A consequence of this is that Act Utilitarians would likely support PGD.
Humanism is another non-religious response to the moral issues arising from embryo uses such as the morality of ARTs and the use of spare embryos for research. Humanist UK are in support of embryo technologies and have no belief in God or the afterlife
