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Ethical Concerns Raised by Controversial New Embryo Study

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nota bene

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I don't see this a any more ethically questionable than paying people for their plasma.
 
Drawdown said:
I don't see this a any more ethically questionable than paying people for their plasma.
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Except that giving plasma isn't potentially life-threatening.
 
nota bene said:
The next step on the grotesque slippery slope: Creating embryos to experiment on, putting women's health at risk while paying them to have abortions if lavage doesn't work, conducting research in a foreign country so as to bypass American standards and requirements...expediency for the ethical loss. :(

Embryo Research In Mexico Raises Ethical Concerns : Shots - Health News : NPR
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The women consented after being told of the potential risks. This can help infertile couples or couples with genetic predisposition to certain diseases. I don't see the issue. Heck, I would have allowed them to do it on me if they paid me two months wages to do so!
 
Scrabaholic said:
The women consented after being told of the potential risks. This can help infertile couples or couples with genetic predisposition to certain diseases. I don't see the issue. Heck, I would have allowed them to do it on me if they paid me two months wages to do so!
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That's just it--poor young Mexican women were being exploited. Very difficult to turn down two months of wages, and I can also see the youthful certainty, despite hearing warnings, that nothing will happen to them.

I don't agree that creating new life simply to use it for experimentation is right, that the ends somehow justify the means.
 
nota bene said:
The next step on the grotesque slippery slope: Creating embryos to experiment on, putting women's health at risk while paying them to have abortions if lavage doesn't work, conducting research in a foreign country so as to bypass American standards and requirements...expediency for the ethical loss. :(

Embryo Research In Mexico Raises Ethical Concerns : Shots - Health News : NPR
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I suspect that these Mexican women are conveniently not being told of a potential abortion. Most Mexican women would do almost anything to avoid an abortion. It could be said that some of these women are being tricked into potential abortions. Railroading women into doing what they believe is murder is unconscionable.
 
SDET said:
I suspect that these Mexican women are conveniently not being told of a potential abortion. Most Mexican women would do almost anything to avoid an abortion. It could be said that some of these women are being tricked into potential abortions. Railroading women into doing what they believe is murder is unconscionable.
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I realize that you are not among them, but I think a lot of people have no idea what "poor" in Mexico or Guatemala or El Salvador means.
 
nota bene said:
Except that giving plasma isn't potentially life-threatening.
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Then outlaw sperm donation. Otherwise, these women get paid a couple month's wages and do so knowing what is involved. Being in the military, police, or fire department can be life-threatening but we don't make them illegal.
 
nota bene said:
2 Potential Risks Associated with Hormone Treatment | Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research: Workshop Report | The National Academies Press

Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
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Every surgical procedure carries a risk. Should all surgery be made illegal? I'm supposed to have a biopsy (Haven't decided on whether to go ahead or not), I guess I shouldn't as there are risks.

BTW, pregnancy carries more risk than abortion, but you want pregnant women to be forced to continue.
 
nota bene said:
The next step on the grotesque slippery slope: Creating embryos to experiment on, putting women's health at risk while paying them to have abortions if lavage doesn't work, conducting research in a foreign country so as to bypass American standards and requirements...expediency for the ethical loss. :(

Embryo Research In Mexico Raises Ethical Concerns : Shots - Health News : NPR
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And if it was ever possible to make abortion illegal in the US...just where do you believe most abortions would take place? Mexico, Canada, nice little cruise ships right offshore, sharing space with the comfortable gambling vessels, etc

Ending legal elective abortion in the US would only encourage more of what your article describes.
 
Scrabaholic said:
Every surgical procedure carries a risk. Should all surgery be made illegal? I'm supposed to have a biopsy (Haven't decided on whether to go ahead or not), I guess I shouldn't as there are risks.

BTW, pregnancy carries more risk than abortion, but you want pregnant women to be forced to continue.
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:applaud:applaud

Abortion is 14 times safer.

Abortion safer than giving birth: study - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Getting a legal abortion is much safer than giving birth, suggests a new U.S. study published Monday.

Researchers found that women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.
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nota bene said:
The next step on the grotesque slippery slope: Creating embryos to experiment on, putting women's health at risk while paying them to have abortions if lavage doesn't work, conducting research in a foreign country so as to bypass American standards and requirements...expediency for the ethical loss. :(

Embryo Research In Mexico Raises Ethical Concerns : Shots - Health News : NPR
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This is a very interesting article. Not so much for what it reports but for the reactions and who is reacting. The lead researcher Santiago Munne says, "We have now a method that can produce embryos that are of good quality or better than in vitro fertilization." From Munne's ethical point of view, "There is no difference between an egg donation cycle and what we did here."

Because this research involves reproduction, embryos and abortion there are questions about the morality.

Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago is a follower and teacher of Emmanuel Levinas(1906-1995) a French bio-ethicist, who stated, "Abortion is the most fundamental human rights issue of our day precisely because it ignores the right to life of the child, and thereby undermines the foundation of all other human rights."

Ms Zoloth is an anti-abortionist and she is against the research. "What this essentially does is use a woman's body as a petri dish. And there's something about that that seems so profoundly disturbing.” She goes on to question the ethics of paying women $1400 to participate in the study. "I think this research was unethical," Zoloth says.

Ms Zoloth is profoundly disturbed and thinks it is unethical that women are being paid to be used as a Petri dish to produce a zygote. But as an anti-abortionist she thinks women who do not want to have a child should be forced into acting as incubators to producing full term children.

Ms Zoloth has an RN a BA and two PhD's. She has studied under a highly regarded bioethicist and is head of the Religion Department at one of the most prestigious universities in the US. How is it possible that this scholar is unaware of her hypocrisy? And why does so much of it surrounds women's private reproductive decisions?
 
Lursa said:
And if it was ever possible to make abortion illegal in the US...just where do you believe most abortions would take place? Mexico, Canada, nice little cruise ships right offshore, sharing space with the comfortable gambling vessels, etc

Ending legal elective abortion in the US would only encourage more of what your article describes.
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My concern here in this thread is the exploitation of human embryos. Creating human life and then deliberately extinguishing it solely for research purposes is morally repulsive.
 
nota bene said:
My concern here in this thread is the exploitation of human embryos. Creating human life and then deliberately extinguishing it solely for research purposes is morally repulsive.
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I guess I dont really get the distinction, but ok.
 
nota bene said:
My concern here in this thread is the exploitation of human embryos. Creating human life and then deliberately extinguishing it solely for research purposes is morally repulsive.
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And yet when I bring Up the fact that IVF clinics toss thousands of pre embryos away daily and many more thousands are frozen away in limbo you seemed unconcerned.

Forgive me...I think you are looking at the research through biased eyes a making a big ado when you do not care about IVF clinics deliberately creating and extinguishing human life .
 
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minnie616 said:
And yet when I bring Up the fact that IVF clinics toss thousands of pre embryos away daily and many more thousands are frozen away in limbo you seemed unconcerned.

Forgive me...I think you are looking at the research through biased eyes a making a big ado when you do not care about IVF clinics deliberately creating and extinguishing human life .
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absolutely, 100%
 
minnie616 said:
And yet when I bring Up the fact that IVF clinics toss thousands of pre embryos away daily and many more thousands are frozen away in limbo you seemed unconcerned.

Forgive me...I think you are looking at the research through biased eyes a making a big ado when you do not care about IVF clinics deliberately creating and extinguishing human life .
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Just because I haven't commented doesn't mean that I'm unconcerned. I've never once expressed an opinion at DP on IVF.
 
nota bene said:
That's just it--poor young Mexican women were being exploited. Very difficult to turn down two months of wages, and I can also see the youthful certainty, despite hearing warnings, that nothing will happen to them.

I don't agree that creating new life simply to use it for experimentation is right, that the ends somehow justify the means.
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The only difference between requiring women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term and women carrying a blastocoel until it is ready for implantation in another woman's uterus is that in one group the women are willing and paid and the other group is unwilling and unpaid.
 
weaver2 said:
The only difference between requiring women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term and women carrying a blastocoel until it is ready for implantation in another woman's uterus is that in one group the women are willing and paid and the other group is unwilling and unpaid.
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From the article linked in the OP:

"What this essentially does is use a woman's body as a petri dish," says Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago. "And there's something about that that seems so profoundly disturbing."
 
nota bene said:
From the article linked in the OP:

"What this essentially does is use a woman's body as a petri dish," says Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago. "And there's something about that that seems so profoundly disturbing."
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But there's nothing disturbing about using women as broodmares for the barren?? Please.
 
Scrabaholic said:
But there's nothing disturbing about using women as broodmares for the barren?? Please.
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I have never made this claim. In fact, I don't recall ever discussing IVF or the ethics of embryonic ethics until this thread. This doesn't mean that I don't have opinions. I do.
 
nota bene said:
I have never made this claim. In fact, I don't recall ever discussing IVF or the ethics of embryonic ethics until this thread. This doesn't mean that I don't have opinions. I do.
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You do want abortion made illegal.
 
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