Christian Science Monitor Examines Ethical Debate About Fertility Treatment Regulation, Company Allowing Embryo Characteristic Selection

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 23 Jan 2007 - 9:00 PDT


The Christian Science Monitor on Thursday examined the "ethical debate" about the Abraham Center of Life selling embryos created from anonymous donors for a "waiting list of interested patients" and potential regulation of assisted reproductive technology (Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, 1/18). The Abraham Center creates embryos and allows parents to select them after reviewing donor characteristics, such as race, education, appearance and personality. The company enrolls egg donors who are in their 20s and have some college education and sperm donors who have advanced education. Abraham Center founder Jennalee Ryan has said all donors undergo health tests and screenings to determine background and family history of mental illness, as well as answer questionnaires about their childhood temperaments, favorite books, adult hobbies and family histories. According to Ryan, each embryo at the center costs $2,500, and the total cost of each pregnancy attempt is less than $10,000, lower than the cost of adoption or in vitro fertilization (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/8). She also has said the center allows clients to screen photos and traits of donors just as many fertility clinics allow clients to screen sperm and egg donors. The center "raises a real question of commodification -- of creating a new human life as a commodity," Robert George, a professor at Princeton University and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, said, adding, "If we let the reproductive technology evolution erode the understanding of our fundamental worth and dignity ... the consequences for civilization really are dire." According to the Monitor, as the fertility treatment field advances with "almost no oversight" because it is privately funded, it raises "an increasing raft of ethical, safety and legal questions." Some critics of the Abraham Center have said it is "one more example of why more oversight is needed," the Monitor reports. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said striking a balance between hampering advances in technology and not regulating the field is difficult, but "in looking out for the best interest of children you've got to do it." He added, "It's a tragedy that we haven't gone very far down the road of protecting those interests, even though the business has gotten huge" (Christian Science Monitor, 1/18).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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