Children by choice: reproductive technologies and the boundaries of personal autonomy.
Unlike other countries that regulate assisted reproduction, the US has largely left this field to the domain of professional self-regulation and market preferences. The reason lies both in the confused jurisprudence of reproductive liberty and the paralysing effect of the abortion debate on US politics. The debate surrounding cloning, however, has galvanized both activists and the government to revisit the question of regulation, and recent cases in the US Supreme Court suggest that if the political will to regulate this field is found, governmental authority to intervene in areas such as pre-implantation diagnosis, gamete donation and surrogacy might well be upheld, even in the face of constitutional challenges.
Charo
R Alta
RA
University of Wisconsin Law School, and Department of Medical History and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin Medical School, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 5211C Law Building, 975 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI 53706, USA. racharo@facstaff.wisc.edu
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*