Aggregated News
Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states what everyone considers to be a self-evident truth: “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”
Well, almost everyone.
I. Glenn Cohen, a bioethicist at Harvard Law School, believes that “the best interests of the child” is not a concept which is applicable to assisted reproductive technology (ART). In a series of recent papers in leading law journals, he argues that an idea which works well for existing children leads to “vacuous”, “problematic” and “pernicious” conclusions when applied to children who do not exist.
The “best interests of the resulting child” (Cohen abbreviates this as BIRC) are often used to discourage or even to bar progress in ART. Should women in their 60s be allowed to bear children? Should anonymous sperm donation be lawful? Should brother-sister incest be permitted? Negative responses in all these cases invoke the best...
Well, almost everyone.
I. Glenn Cohen, a bioethicist at Harvard Law School, believes that “the best interests of the child” is not a concept which is applicable to assisted reproductive technology (ART). In a series of recent papers in leading law journals, he argues that an idea which works well for existing children leads to “vacuous”, “problematic” and “pernicious” conclusions when applied to children who do not exist.
The “best interests of the resulting child” (Cohen abbreviates this as BIRC) are often used to discourage or even to bar progress in ART. Should women in their 60s be allowed to bear children? Should anonymous sperm donation be lawful? Should brother-sister incest be permitted? Negative responses in all these cases invoke the best...