At What Point Does IVF Become Human Experimentation?
Posted by Osagie K. Obasogie January 11, 2007
Biopolitical Times
Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z’s recently released coming-out-of-retirement album includes a track where he proclaims, “30 is the new 20.” But are sexagenarians now considered middle aged? News from Spain that a 67-year-old has given birth to twins suggests that, at least in one way, they might be. After undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), this unidentified Spanish woman has become the oldest woman to give birth, surpassing Adriana Iliescu who also underwent IVF and gave birth in 2005 at the age of 66.
Is this an appropriate use of reproductive technologies? Some argue that infertility at any age is a disease that should be treated. Others evade questions of age appropriateness by focusing on women’s reproductive choice; Roe and its global corollaries, from this perspective, have no age limit.
The relationship between reproductive choice and human biotechnology is complicated and deserves more thought. And, as a recent New York Timesarticle suggests, identifying each of life’s misfortunes as a “disease” reflects shifting social expectations as health care markets expand and technology advances rather than any bona fide medical condition.
While many older women want to have children for all the right reasons, the fertility industry may be turning grandmothers into mothers for the wrong ones: to make money and simply see if it can be done. The ethics here are certainly questionable, but the larger impact fertility drugs and multiple-birth pregnancies have on women’s and children’s health suggest that we are approaching the fine line between treating infertility and experimenting on humans. And, in a growing number of cases, that line is behind us.
Is this an appropriate use of reproductive technologies? Some argue that infertility at any age is a disease that should be treated. Others evade questions of age appropriateness by focusing on women’s reproductive choice; Roe and its global corollaries, from this perspective, have no age limit.
The relationship between reproductive choice and human biotechnology is complicated and deserves more thought. And, as a recent New York Timesarticle suggests, identifying each of life’s misfortunes as a “disease” reflects shifting social expectations as health care markets expand and technology advances rather than any bona fide medical condition.
While many older women want to have children for all the right reasons, the fertility industry may be turning grandmothers into mothers for the wrong ones: to make money and simply see if it can be done. The ethics here are certainly questionable, but the larger impact fertility drugs and multiple-birth pregnancies have on women’s and children’s health suggest that we are approaching the fine line between treating infertility and experimenting on humans. And, in a growing number of cases, that line is behind us.