Introduction: The Importance of Evaluating Assessments of in Vitro Fertilization

Abstract

Less than twenty years ago the first “test-tube baby” was born in England. Today, grandmothers serve as surrogate mothers for their daughter’s children, postmenopausal women become pregnant, divorced couples fight over the custody of frozen embryos, and scientists clone sheep. The use and rapid proliferation of technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and related procedures have aroused public controversy around the world. Governments in different countries have established committees to analyze the social, legal, and ethical implications of IVF and associated techniques. A few legislatures have translated into law the recommendations put forward by their respective committees. However, most of these committees tend to see technology as lacking any inherent relationship with ethical issues.¹ When social and ethical problems arise, assessors understand them as secondary to the introduction of the technology and a result of the application of new abilities and instruments. In this decontextualized view, most of the problems with which evaluators deal are associated with the consequences of the implementation and use of new techniques. For example, the medical use of IVF brings about worries related to the disposition of embryos never reclaimed, the storage of spare embryos, issues associated with licensing of infertility clinics, and so on. IVF assessors also show concern with application criteria: should IVF be used for single mothers, unmarried couples, postmenopausal women? These questions are, of course, useful because they may help to demarcate the acceptable use of IVF in our society. However, focusing IVF assessments exclusively on technical problems may make the analyses inadequate.