The Right to Procreate with Unknown Gametes
Although sperm donation has been occurring for over one hundred years, improved technology, resulting in the ability to separate gestational and genetic motherhood, has paved the way for ovum donation as well. Although few people in the medical and mental health fields haveopenly questioned the moral acceptability of gamete donation, it does raise an important ethical question: Is it morally acceptable to bring a child into the world with an unknown genetic parent?
This issue may be more timely now because our understanding has deepened in recent years about the relative weight of nature versus nurture in determining who a person will ultimately become. Although scientists are not quite ready to map the human genome, more and more information about biological destiny is unfolding on an almost daily basis. Because we now understand that genetics plays a very large role--larger than previously thought-- in providing a blueprint for adulthood, the ethics of bringing a child into the world with unknown genetic origins is more questionable today than it was in the past. The concern is whether it may be psychologically or medically harmful to a person to have no information--or little information--about his/her genetic make-up. On the other hand, to deny a would-be parent the right to chose to procreate with donor gametes threatens both the patient's autonomy and his/her reproductive freedom.
© Ellen Sarasohn Glazer, LICSW
Susan Lewis Cooper
