title: Making sense of child welfare when regulating human reproductive technologies.
abstract: Policy-makers have attempted to frame the ethical requirements that are relevant to the creation of human beings via reproductive technologies. Various reports and laws enacted in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Britain have introduced tests for how we should weigh child welfare when using these technologies. A number of bioethicists have argued that child welfare should be interpreted as a "best interests" test. Others have argued that there are ethical reasons why we should abandon this kind of test. I will argue that at least some of the relevant policy can be interpreted as requiring those wishing to exercise their procreative liberty to have a reasonable plan to care and nurture any resulting child, thereby respecting the internal preconditions of that liberty. This interpretation of child welfare requirements answers some of the ethical worries about a child welfare test.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Sciences, Bioethics Centre, P.O. Box 913, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand, john.mcmillan@otago.ac.nz.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McMillan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009520:New Zealand; D016487:Parenting; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011050:Policy Making; D011640:Public Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D012099:Reproductive Techniques / Q000941:ethics; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000941:ethics*; D006113:United Kingdom; D015974:Wrongful Life / Q000941:ethics