Reproduction, Ethics, and the Law

"Reproduction, Ethics, and the Law" addresses some of the most pressing moral and legal quandaries in contemporary society - those revolving around human reproduction. Technology can both limit and assist childbearing. Courts have assigned legal parenthood to genetic 'parents' of children carried to term by women genetically unrelated to them - and courts have also passed over genetic progenitors to assign parenthood to individuals socially related to children. With developments in medical and surgical interventions for fetuses, we have also seen court cases holding women responsible for causing prenatal harm, as well as a landmark Supreme Court decision that might well release industry from liability for causing prenatal harm in the workplace.Scientists are able to use tissue from aborted fetuses to substantially alter the quality of life for persons afflicted with progressive, debilitating disease, and they are now able to fertilize and implant in women's wombs eggs harvested from aborted female fetuses. Physicians are able to sustain infants with no hope for characteristically human lives long enough to make their organs available to other infants in vital need; and they are able to perform prenatal diagnoses that encourage elective abortion. This collection of essays adds to the feminist dimension of the public discussion of how these issues should be addressed. Contributors broaden the discussion considerably in focusing on issues beyond abortion and reproductive technologies, bringing together such themes as surrogacy, adoption, and infertility; frozen embryos and 'fathers' rights'; RU 486; fetal harm; and, industrial health hazards for women.This volume brings together feminist social and philosophical theory with a practical awareness of concrete social problems and an understanding of new technologies. The contributors are Barbara J. Berg, Joan E. Bertin, Joan C. Callahan, Janet Gallagher, Helen B. Holmes, Joan Mahoney, Mary B. Mahowald, Uma Narayan, Christine Overall, Laura Purdy, Mary L. Shanley, Janice G. Raymond, Patricia Smith and Rosemarie Tong.