Excess of Embryos in In Vitro Fertilization - Term Paper Example

Running Head: IVF Excess of Embryos in In Vitro Fertilization of Excess of Embryos in In Vitro Fertilization Introduction: Infertility among women has been noted to become a serious concern over the years. The scientists have found out various methods to make sure that the infertile women are able to become pregnant and give birth to healthy children. Among these fertility methods, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has become one of the effective ways to help infertile couple to have children. This paper aims to discuss In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in details with the practical being undertaken in the laboratory setting. The paper will also introduce the conflict that has been assumed to complicate the method of pregnancy i.e. excess of embryos being wasted every year. Some of the ethical considerations have also been taken under evaluation which is associated with IVF. Lastly, the ethical undertakings will be elaborated in the context of moral absolutism, relativism plurality, ethical egoism and utilitarianism. In Vitro Fertilization: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has become one of the smarter ways through which non-productive women can now give birth with healthy pregnancy. It is basically a method which enables reproduction of human pregnancy externally (outside the body). The method that is applied for pregnancy in IVF involves the man’s sperm and woman’s egg is combined together within the laboratory setting. Once the reaction between the woman’s egg and man’s sperm takes place, the reacting embryo is transferred to the uterus of woman by a surgical process. The procedure is conducted under planned time frame which cannot afford any delays or mishandling (Sher, Davis, & Stoess, 2005). Apparently, a lot of critics have mentioned that IVF is an easy method which has been contested by IVF practitioners. IVF is a complex process that involves systematic procedure for undergoing pregnancy. The processes that are involved in the IVF process includes following systematic steps: Step 1: This step involves drugs that are especially given to women so that multiple eggs can be produced. This allows the ovaries to produce multiple eggs that are in a continuous yet natural cycle. This step is very important to note because this has a special association with the conflict of frozen embryos. The need of more than one cell is because not all eggs can be used for fertilization. Thus, more than one egg is produced in the IVF method of pregnancy (Bonnicksen, 1989). Step 2: The second step involves the retrieval of the eggs from the woman’s body. This step does not take long as this based upon surgical method of retrieval of eggs. This step also undergoes the filtration of the best eggs. This means that the total number of eggs that are retrieved from the woman’s body are filtered and only best ones among all will be used for the final fertilization (Parker, 2007). Step 3: This step is merely involved with the male sperm. The procedures which are used in this step are ejaculation or the usage of condom. The main focus of this step is to undergo insemination which means that the egg from the woman’s body and the sperm from the man’s body will be inseminated. The process of fertilization is not probable to take place in this step as soon as the insemination takes place. There need to be intracytoplasmic sperm injection which will allow the eggs to be fertilized (Gardner, 2007). Step 4: The fourth step involves the transfer of the fertilized embryos to the uterus of woman. This is done in the form of cycle and more than one embryo is sent to make sure that the risk is lesser. This is done in the form of implantation of the embryos in cycled manner (Elder, Dale, Harper, & Huntriss, 2010). History of the issue: The issue has arose when the excess of the embryos were observed to be increasing in the national fertility centers. It has been noted that in order to save money for the fertilization of more eggs during the IVF cycle, a number of patients get more embryos fertilized at the same time. This is mainly because of the risk of failed IVF process. If more than one embryo is fertilized than the pregnancy is sure to be successful because the doctors can implant another embryo is the screening shows the pregnancy to be at risk. It has been noted that the patients who would opt for the IVF method to give birth to children are mostly not interested to make use of the remaining embryos. This is one of the ethical dilemmas that have been noted ever since the pregnancy by IVF has become common (Charlesworth, 2007). The debate regarding the excess of embryos has become severe because these embryos are not being utilized for any positive purpose. Thus there is a need of moral and ethical statements for solving the conflict. These embryos are not just being put in the national medical freezers in a general manner but are especially being frozen by the process of cryopreservation. With the help of this process, the embryos can possibly stay active for many years which enable the clinical procedures to make use of these embryos in the case of donation. As per the statistics the number of frozen embryos continues to increase in United States. Since 1970s, the number of frozen embryos has shown dramatic increase. More than 40, 0000 embryos have been stored in the frozen storage which was not even permitted to be used for further donation. It was suggested that the frozen embryos must be used for the experimentation but patients have not permitted the clinical professionals to undergo experiments on the frozen embryos. It shall be noted that these frozen embryos are left on uncertainty i.e. patients would opt another pregnancy and make use of the frozen embryos otherwise these embryos will continue to be stored in the frozen storage (Riley, 1994). The question that has been arising is the need of laws that would make it certain for the clinical professionals to do about the frozen embryos. If the patients are not willing to make use of the embryos for future pregnancy needs then they must subject the embryos for the donation purpose or clinical experimentation. In this context, only Italy has been proven to have laws to embody the embryos with a better fate (Brinsden & Clinic, 2005). Among different countries where the IVF procedure are being opted for infertile married couples have introduced different laws to make sure that the frozen embryos are not collected in the national frozen storage being fate-less. Thus, the country has made it clear that extra number of embryos will not be fertilized until or unless there is an avid need of it. The limited number of embryos being fertilized must be used for the pregnancy purpose. In case the embryos are still left for storage than the patients must make sure that they have given the consent for further donation of the embryos for other in-fertile married couple. In other words, it can be said that the cryopreservation of the embryos have been banned in Italy. Such laws are needed to be legalized in other countries so the embryos are being donated and have a better fate (Daniel, 2011). Another problematic concern was the usage of embryos for experimental purpose. The need of embryos was because scientists believed that the embryos can help in finding out the cures for many diseases. But under the presidency of George W. Bush, the harvesting of the embryos was made illegal where the number of embryos which were used before putting the limitation were lesser than 12, 000 (Ginsburg & Racowsky, 2012). As per the survey, it was noted that the patients stooped donating their embryos because they believe that they can be used for the future pregnancy purpose if they would need to increase their family size. Among the total number of embryos being stored in the frozen storage in United States, only 11,000 embryos were actually donated for the purpose of scientific experimentation (Stephenson, 1993). Arguments on the Grounds of Ethical and Moral Grounds: The debate regarding the frozen embryos fertilized by the IVF procedures have been debated a great deal. One school of thought consider that the In Vitro Fertilization has enabled many in fertile married couples to fulfill their dreams of giving birth to their babies/ In this way, they have been able to complete their families. However, the question of excess embryos remains unanswered by such couples (Heo, 2008). Moral absolutism likewise pluralism suggests that the embryos have their physical right as well. These are probable to have an absolutism i.e. they can become humans too. The storage of embryos and making them use for the experimentation is unlawful activity that clinical professionals and parents would do. The debate regarding the moral issue of IVF procedure and leaving embryos frozen is against the right of embryos being used for stem cells. It should be noted that the debate has rather taken the face of debate regarding abortion where fetus has been considered to have its own rights. In similar ways, IVF procedures for pregnancy have raised moral issues of embryos being put for storage (Jersild, 1986). On the other hand, the moral relativism explains the debate to be circumstances which means that married couples without fertility needed to complete their family. The usage of In Vitro fertilization (IVF) is needed to help humans to complete their families. The usage of extra embryos can be termed as the need to make the operations successful. The school of relativism claims that there is nothing wrong about consuming more embryos as long as it is for the purpose of staying careful about the risks associated with the pregnancy. Thus relativism school of thought goes against the statement of moral absolutism claiming the embryos to be the centre of issues. In other words, it could be said that the pregnancy and the birth of a new baby is more important than embryo which still needs to fertilize. The relativism moral ground is also defendant of the embryos being frozen because it claims that these embryos can further be used for the need of pregnancy of homosexuals or single mothers. This procedure has been able to cater the needs of different types of sexual categories (Daniel, 2011). Under the grounds of the ethical egoism, it has been noted that the patients would disagree with the fact that they will have to donate the frozen embryos to other married infertile couples. With the consideration of the ethical egoism, the patients stand for stooping their embryos to be further donated to other couples is not incorrect. This takes the conflict to an entire different dimension for discussion. Thus, it is suggested that lawmakers need to consider all the ethical grounds to make a law that will embody everyone’s interest regarding In Vitro Fertilization (Gardner, 2007). Conclusion: Thus, through the above analysis of the procedure of In Vitro Fertilization, it could be stated that it is the most widely used method for the need of providing the infertile married couples a chance to complete their families. The method is surely a complex one which needs thorough schedule for the proceeding or different systematic steps. It should be noted that there have been many ethical questions that have been raised. As noted above, the most critical issue is the laws for the frozen embryos. The moral and ethical grounds continue to heat the debate where the moral absolutism consider the embryos being stored without any fate to have its own rights and suggesting the laws to help such embryos. On the other hand, the relativism grounds of the moral and ethical grounds continue to provide a neutral aspect of the conflict. This states that the embryos are important because In Vitro Fertilization needs to be undertaken for the risk free pregnancy. This makes it easier to understand that there is an avid need of the laws that will make probable for the patients to further donation of embryos. References List Bonnicksen, A. (1989). In Vitro Fertilization: Building Policy from Laboratories to Legislatures. California: Columbia University Press. Brinsden, P., & Clinic, B. (2005). Textbook Of In Vitro Fertilization And Assisted Reproduction: The Bourn Hall Guide To Clinical And Laboratory Practice. New York: Taylor & Francis. Charlesworth, L. (2007). The Couples Guide To In Vitro Fertilization: Everything You Need To Know To Maximize Your Chances Of Success. Washington DC.: Da Capo Press. Daniel, K. (2011). In-Vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game. New York: Karen Daniels. Elder, K., Dale, B., Harper, J., & Huntriss, J. (2010). In-Vitro Fertilization. Califormia: Cambridge University Press. Gardner, D. (2007). In vitro fertilization: a practical approach. New York: Informa Healthcare. Ginsburg, E., & Racowsky, C. (2012). In Vitro Fertilization: A Comprehensive Guide. New York: Springer. Heo, Y. (2008). Improvement of in Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Technology Through Microfluidics. St.Louis: ProQuest. Jersild, P. (1986). In Vitro Fertilization. New York: Lutheran Church in America. Parker, S. (2007). In Vitro Fertilization. New York: Gareth Stevens Pub. Riley, R. (1994). Ivf: In Vitro Fertilization. New York: Hill of Content Publishing Company Pty Limited. Sher, G., Davis, V., & Stoess, J. (2005). In Vitro Fertilization: The A.R.T. Of Making Babies. New York: Facts On File. Stephenson, P. (1993). Tough Choices: In Vitro Fertilization and the Reproductive Technologies, Volume 722. New York: Temple University Press. Read More