Deck 14: New Reproductive Technologies

Question 1

Woman A plans to carry to term a pregnancy obtained by in vitro fertilization using her own donor eggs. If everything goes well, she will give the newborn to woman B, who will adopt it and rear it as her child. Woman B will then be what type of mother?

A) A genetic mother
B) A gestational mother
C) A social mother
D) All of the above

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Given the evidence available, so far success in live births by reproductive cloning has been achieved

A) Only on nonhuman animals
B) On human and nonhuman animals
C) Only on invertebrates
D) On all of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following best captures what kind of right, if any, reproductive freedom is?

A) A right to be provided with assisted reproduction
B) A right of noninterference with one's own reproductive decisions
C) A right to select embryos for the presence of a disability
D) All of the above

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following is the objection to in vitro fertilization (IVF) from embryo handling?

A) That, through IVF cycles, multiple embryos are created, some are frozen and others deliberately allowed to die
B) That the embryos created by IVF have moral standing
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 5

Which of the following falls within the so-called the simple case of IVF?

A) IVF for postmenopausal women
B) IVF for infertile married couples
C) IVF for gay couples
D) IVF for single mothers

Question 6

Which of the following best expresses the feminist critique of new reproductive technologies (NRTs)?

A) NRTs are unnatural
B) NRTs commodify childbirth and children
C) NRTs lead to mishandling human embryos
D) All of the above

Question 7

According to Chapter 14, a main moral problem facing cases such as Nadya Suleman and the McCaugheys concerns

A) The risk of harm to children
B) The handling of IVF embryos
C) The natalism assumption
D) All of the above

Question 8

In reply to the children's welfare objection to NRTs, defenders of NRTs argued that since without NRTs some children with disabilities would not exist, NRTs

A) Can never harm the children brought into existence with a disability
B) Can harm children brought into existence with a disability only if their lives are not worth living
C) Can always harm the children brought into existence with a disability
D) None of the above

Question 9

Proponents of the Unnaturalness Objection to IVF discussed in the text argue that

A) There is a natural order with which IVF interferes
B) IVF amounts to a departure from the traditional family
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 10

In response to the feminist critique of NRTs, Marie Anne Warren argues that NRTs may

A) Lead to the commodification of women
B) Undermine women's dignity
C) Undermine women's self-determination
D) Help restore women's control of reproduction

Question 11

In vitro fertilization (IVF) often creates more embryos than needed for a single pregnancy. Why is that an objection to IVF? How might the medical team's obligations of beneficence toward infertile patients wishing to conceive be used to reply to that objection?

Question 12

Which factors and assumptions sometimes affecting surrogates could undermine their ability to give informed consent? How might Lori Gruen respond to a claim that surrogates tend to have diminished capacity for informed consent?

Question 13

In which respects are IVF and fertility therapy morally comparable, and in which different? Illustrate your answer with some cases from Chapter 14.

Question 14

Some ethical questions about NRTs concern the moral standing of the embryos that are created in vitro. What might conservative Natural Law theorists say about who owns the embryos, and about disposing of unused embryos by destroying or donated them to other individuals or labs? What's your own view on these matters?

Question 15

Suppose some prospective parents decide to have offspring born at approximately the same time. Their plan is to use the wife's eggs and the husband's sperm for IVF embryos, which will be transferred to two surrogates for carrying simultaneous pregnancies to term. How might their decision be evaluated morally by Natural Law theorists and by classical utilitarians? What is your own assessment of the decision?