Singer and Dawson point out that two arguments against abortion, that the embryo is entitled to protection because from fertilization it is (1) a human being or (2) a potential human being, are also used by opponents of embryo experimentation. They focus on the second argument, evaluating the notion of potentiality as it applies to gametes, to the unimplanted embryo, to the implanted developing embryo, and to the embryo created by in vitro fertilization (IVF). They argue that there is a (...) crucial distinction between natural reproduction, in which all that is needed for the embryo to have a prospect of reaching its potential is for those involved to refrain from stopping it, and IVF, in which the embryo cannot develop into a person without a deliberate human act. Reproductive techniques necessitate our rethinking of established views about potentiality, and how it should be applied to the embryo in a laboratory. (KIE abstract). (shrink)

New developments in reproductive technology have made headlines since the birth of the world's first in vitro fertilization baby in 1978. But is embryo experimentation ethically acceptable? What is the moral status of the early human embryo? And how should a democratic society deal with so controversial an issue, where conflicting views are based on differing religious and philosophical positions? These controversial questions are the subject of this book, which, as a current compendium of ideas and arguments on the subject, (...) makes an original contribution of major importance to this debate. (shrink)

Special Care: Medical Decisions at the Beginning of Life, by Fred FronhockPlaying God in the Nursery, by Jeff LyonsWithholding Treatment From Defective Newborn Children, Joseph E. Magnet and Eike‐Henner W. KlugeCenter for Ethics, Medicine and Public Issues Baylor College of MedicineLAW AND MORALS by Simon Lee. OxfordThe Foetus as Organ donor: Scientific, Social and Ethical Perspectives. By Peter McCullaghTransplantation Unit The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

The authors focus on IVF technology to raise profound and disturbing questions about potentiality in the context of ex utero embryo. They explore different meanings of such notion. They suggest that the notion of potential is relatively clear in the context of naturally occuring process of pregnancy. But a laboratory embryo follows no “natural course”. It cannot become a person without the deliberate human act to transferring it to a uterus. They also connect the notion of potential with that of (...) “possibility” noticing that the possibilities of becoming a person of an ex utero and an in utero embryo are very different. (shrink)