The Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and the Family

This open access book is the first volume on the ethics of intra-familial reproduction, exploring cutting-edge debates and developments in reproductive science and their impact on how we conceptualize kinship.

In recent decades, reproductive technologies have enabled novel uses of family members’ reproductive materials (such as gametes or wombs) or functions (such as pregnancy). Reproductive material has been collected from comatose or deceased people at the request of their spouses, and then used in reproduction. Invasive fertility preservation measures have been undertaken on children, at the request of their parents. Mothers have carried their adult offspring´s babies in their wombs in order to help them become parents.

Such examples raise unprecedented ethical challenges. Whose interests ground the creation of offspring using a deceased person’s gametes? What is the relation between a mother and the grandchild that she gave birth to; between a deceased man and the children conceived with his sperm; or between the parents of a deceased woman and the baby that they created with her eggs? Contributors to The Ethics of Intra-familial Access to Reproductive Potential explore how these new forms of family connection will only grow in number and complexity as new technologies proliferate. Chapters contribute to ongoing debates on the moral status of children, the importance of genetic reproduction, and the clarification of claims to others’ reproductive capacities in the context of the family.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation.