Reproductive Ethics

Should fertility medicine be regulated more tightly?

By Marcia Clemmitt, May 15, 2009

Nadya Suleman, an unemployed, 33-year-old, single mother from Southern California, felt her six children weren't enough. Last January, after a fertility doctor implanted six embryos she had frozen earlier, Suleman gave birth to octuplets — and was quickly dubbed “Octomom.” Many fertility experts were shocked that a doctor would depart so far from medical guidelines — which recommend implantation of only one, or at most two, embryos for a woman of Suleman's relatively young age. Although multiple births often do result from in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted-reproduction technologies, the number of multiples has dropped over the past few years, they point out. Other analysts note, however, that government statistics show a large percentage of clinics frequently ignore the guidelines on embryo implantation. In response, lawmakers in several states have introduced proposals to increase regulation of fertility clinics.

The Issues:

• Should fertility medicine be regulated more vigorously?
• Should parents be allowed to choose their babies' characteristics, such as gender?
• Should doctors be able to refuse assisted reproductive technologies (ART) services to gay, older or single people?

To read the Overview of the report click here.

To view the entire report, login to CQ Researcher Online [subscription required], or purchase the CQ Researcher PDF.