Reproductive Rights

Rels 300/Nurs 3306 November 2014

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http://www.martincountydemocrats.com/fun.html

Reproductive rights Do individuals/couples have

a right to reproduce? Is this a universal human

right, like the right to life? If there is a universal right

to reproduce, who has the corresponding duty to ensure procreative fertility rather than infertility?

Do persons have a right to biological offspring?

Do persons have a right to parenthood?

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2 sorts of human rights

Negative or Liberty Rights

Liberty to choose one’s own life goals and values

Right to be free from interference in the pursuit of one’s goals

Right not to be prevented from achieving one’s goals

Freedom from …

Positive or Welfare Rights

Liberty to choose one’s own life goals and values

Right to have communal support in the pursuit of one’s goals

Right to any and all required assistance to achieve one’s goals

Freedom to …300/330 - appleby 3

Negative Reproductive RightsFreedom from:

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Positive Reproductive RightsFreedom to:

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“The Presumptive Primacy of Procreative Liberty”

Robertson, p.131: Reproductive choices are “central to personal identity, to dignity, and to the meaning of one’s life” Procreative decisions are personal, individual,

and should be made by autonomous choice People should not make moral judgements

about the autonomous choices of others The state should not interfere with these

choicesUNLESS there is evidence that substantial

harm would result from one’s choice

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Procreative Liberty and HarmsAccording to Robertson, “those who

would limit procreative choice have the burden of showing that [one’s] reproductive actions” would result in tangible & substantial harms

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What sorts of potential harms might there be?Who might be vulnerable to being harmed by procreative choices and reproductive technologies?

Conceptual context for understanding liberty rights

Murray, p.133: The concept of procreative liberty functions within a cultural context which: emphasizes individual autonomy values independent exercise of rights, personal choice and control favours freedom from limitations imposed by others collaborates with others by means of contractual rights and

obligations is comfortable with interactions that resemble the marketplace –

property ownership, buying & selling raw materials and products, and providing services

The desire and choice to have children is a choice to initiate a very special relationship which is inconsistent with

market values. (Murray)

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Limitations on Autonomy

Procreative liberty promotes individual autonomy and freedom from interference From a bioethics perspective, autonomy must

also be balanced with attention to beneficence Contributing to the well-being and benefit of

potential parents, infants, and donors Also by non-maleficence

Ensuring that risks are minimized and harms are avoided for participants

And by justice fair and equal opportunities & treatments that are

provided in an equitable manner without bias or discrimination

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Evaluating reproductive technologies

Whose personal dignity and autonomy are promoted or harmed?

What are the potential benefits of reproductive technologies? Who are the beneficiaries?

What are the potential risks and harms of reproductive technologies? Who is most likely to be harmed?

Are there justice issues in the provision of reproductive services? Issues of fairness, equality, equitable access?

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“Fertility Preservation through egg freezing

allows younger women to store eggs

for use when they are older thus providing women today even

more control over when they choose to

start a family.” http

://www.sbivf.com/egg-freezing-success-rates-at-irms/#

sthash.1msdoRxj.dpuf

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THE NEW YORKER Cold Comfort: Tech Jobs and Egg FreezingBY REBECCA MEAD; OCTOBER 17, 2014

Facebook began offering $20,000 to female employees as part of its health-insurance plan… Apple will offer its employees a comparable package

A single cycle of egg extraction can cost between $10,000 & $15,000, and more than one cycle is advised for many women; cold storage is about five hundred dollars a year.

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Why would it appeal to career women to postpone childbearing from one’s 20s or early 30s until one’s later 30s or 40s?

Does egg-freezing offer a “tantalizing suggestion of reproductive liberty”?

Would it support the autonomy of women who might wish to become mothers – later?

“What if, rather than being a means of empowerment—whereby a young woman is no longer subject to anything so quaintly analog as the ticking of a biological clock—freezing one’s eggs is understood as a surrender to the larger, more invisibly pervasive force of corporate control?”

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Facebook and Apple offering to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs is utterly misguided

THE INDEPENDENT, SOPHIE ZADEH; Wednesday 15 October 2014

“This is far from a benefit indicative of a forward-thinking, female-friendly business model…

“In making the woman-equals-mother mantra part of company policy, it is possible that the female employees of Facebook and Apple may feel under pressure – real or imagined – to take advantage of this ‘benefit’, rather than have their family at a ‘professionally inconvenient’ time.

female employees may not want to mother

“dangerous” assumption that all women working for Facebook and Apple want to become mothers, and that they want to do so…by mothering at a particular age, when their career has reached a particular stage

offering to pay for egg freezing in this way is also highly insensitive to those women who experience infertility and therefore cannot reproduce at all

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