Debates Surrounding IVF

    The readings for this week have been among my favorites assigned for this class. I find the topic of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to be fascinating. It amazes me that we now have the science and technology available to be able to select for or against certain genes and to create “savior siblings” as Tine Gammeltoft and Ayo Wahlberg termed the babies born to donate bone marrow, blood, etc. to a sibling with a disease. I also found it interesting to learn about the mitochondrial replacement therapy that Gammeltoft and Wahlberg discussed so that now part of the mother’s egg can be put into the egg from a donor, thus resulting in the baby having three genetic parents. It’s mind boggling to think about the impact this could have on parenting and family structures. The definition of families is certainly changing but, up until this point at least, no matter what the family structure was, every child had two biological parents. Now, even that is not necessarily a given.  

     Another part of these readings that I found interesting was what types of in vitro fertilization were allowed in different cultures and religions and what was the reasoning behind those norms. I’ve done research on IVF for other classes, but have always focused on the practicalities and implications of selecting for or against certain traits. I’ve never really thought about how different cultures might view IVF. Lisa Handwerker in her article about IVF in China discussed that most people were against using donated sperm in the procedures because it’s more important for a child to be biologically the husband’s than the wife’s due to how Chinese culture traces lineage. For similar reasons, Susan Kahn points out that in Jewish culture, people are against using donated ovum because lineage is traced through the mother. In the case of using donated ovum, many questions are raised as to how to trace lineage and who the mother is – is the woman who donated the egg or the one who carried and birthed the baby? Or does the baby actually have either two mothers or no mother at all? It’s important to have a systematized way to decide who the mother is in order to confer Jewish citizenship to those who deserve it. Finally, in Marcia Inhorn’s article on IVF in Islamic cultures, readers see that it’s really not lineage that is the issue, but the fear of being an adulterer if you used either donated ovum or sperm. I think this reason for not using donated ovum or sperm was especially shocking to me because it seems crazy to me to call someone an adulterer when only their DNA has been mixed together in a lab.