Abstract

Decisions about reproduction are among the most important and impactful that human beings make in our lives, and there is a need for clinicians-in-training to understand how to best help patients navigate through these challenging decisions. Several frameworks offer opportunities for students to examine these ethical issues: natural law, reproductive rights, reproductive justice, and reproductive flourishing. Each of these has benefits and problems; most frameworks focus primarily on the permissibility or impermissibility of particular choices or are directed at a broad policy level, but the framework of reproductive flourishing is best suited to teach students how to focus on meeting the needs of their patients. The framework is useful in education because it reduces the conflict orientation that students often bring into discussions about ethics in reproductive care and refocuses the discussion on the practical challenges of patient care while simultaneously allowing students to reflect on their own values and goals in reproduction.