PBS' "American Experience" Film Explores History, Ethics Of Human Reproductive Technologies

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Fertility;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 25 Oct 2006 - 18:00 PDT

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PBS' "American Experience" on Monday will air a documentary film, titled "Test Tube Babies," that chronicles the development of human reproductive technologies, the New York Times reports (Gates, New York Times, 10/23). The documentary will profile the physicians, researchers and couples involved in scientific advances and explore the philosophical, ethical and moral issues involved in fertility treatments and technologies. The program includes interviews with:

• Arthur Caplan, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania;
  
  
• Judy and Roger Carr, parents of the first U.S. infant conceived through in vitro fertilization;
  
  
• Doris and John Del-Zio, who participated in the first attempt at IVF in the U.S.;
  
  
• Robert George, member of the President's Council on Bioethics;
  
  
• Lucinda Veeck Gosden, director of embryology at the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility;
  
  
• Robin Marantz Henig, author of "Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution";
  
  
• Georgianna Jagiello, professor and physician in obstetrics and gynecology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital;
  
  
• Howard Jones, founder of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School;
  
  
• Margaret Marsh, historian and dean of the Rutgers-Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and
  
  
• Lee Silver, molecular biologist at Princeton University.
  

The program's Web site includes several on line features -- such as expanded information on the people and events featured on the program; a timeline of reproductive research and IVF; an online survey; a role-playing exercise as an IVF counselor; profiles of five families who used IVF; a discussion of ethical issues raised by medical technologies; and links to related Web sites, books and articles. Show times are available through local PBS listings. A complete transcript of the program will be available online after the broadcast. Podcasts of "American Experience" episodes also are available (PBS Web site and release, 10/23).

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