Ruth Institute Blog

Manuel and Sophia Corpas, Mercatornet.com

Ever-more sophisticated technology allows us to detect ever more genetic anomalies. What will we do with this knowledge?

One of our biggest worries in the field of genome medicine is the use of prenatal genetics tests to justify the abortion of human embryos. Current technologies allow enhanced detection of genetic abnormalities that a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Read more…

Michael Cook, BioEdge.org

IVF in Britain is a 500 million pound  industry, so it’s surprising that no one had ever organised one before: a fertility trade show. The Guardian described the London event on November 6 and 7 as an “Ideal Home Exhibition for making babies”, although its reporter, Emma Cook, confessed that “it doesn’t make one feel entirely easy seeing big business tap such an emotive market.” Read more…

by Margaret Somerville

If society pays the costs for creating test-tube babies, we also have to accept the ethical responsibility.

The Ontario Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption recently released its report, titled “Raising Expectations,” which describes the current state of Ontario’s adoption and assisted reproduction systems and makes detailed recommendations. Read more…

by Jennifer Roback Morse

The screen version of Jodi Picoult’s novel poses the question: how much are we entitled to use each other?
The use and misuse of artificial reproductive technology (ART) is a subject that deserves more attention than it commonly gets. My Sister’s Keeper is a thought-provoking dramatization of one of the most troubling ethical issues of the ART industry: the creation of “savior siblings”. Read more…