KEY ISSUES: Assisted Reproductive Technology
The field of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has come a long way since the first successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy three decades ago. Since then, ART has benefited from developments in reproductive medicine and genetics.
These advances have enabled numerous individuals and couples to achieve their dreams of having children. ART, however, has also given rise to numerous legal issues and ethical concerns, including: patient safety for mother and child; reproductive rights; what to do with embryos that are created but not used; the use of pre-implantation diagnosis to screen embryos for specific traits, including sex; the potential for human reproductive cloning; and the possibility of genetically engineered offspring.
To learn more about this topic, see:
Department of Health and Human Services
Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future
"Americans have always defined themselves in terms of the future. It is therefore astonishing that there is no policy institute on emerging technologies in the nation's capital, one that cuts across philosophical lines. C-PET addresses that absence in our national conversation."
—JONATHAN MORENO
