No small matter for some: Practitioners' views on the moral status and treatment of human embryos

Medical Law Review

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 90-107

  Farsides, Bobbie ^a   Scott, Rosamund ^a  

^a BRIGHTON AND SUSSEX MEDICAL SCHOOL   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Health professionals and scientists views; Moral status of the embryo; Treatment of the embryo

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EMBRYO DISPOSITION; EMBRYO RESEARCH; ETHICS; FERTILIZATION IN VITRO; HEALTH PERSONNEL ATTITUDE; HUMAN; INTERVIEW; LEGAL ASPECT; MANAGEMENT; MORALITY; UNITED KINGDOM;

ATTITUDE OF HEALTH PERSONNEL; EMBRYO DISPOSITION; EMBRYO RESEARCH; FERTILIZATION IN VITRO; GREAT BRITAIN; HUMANS; INTERVIEWS AS TOPIC; MORALS; POLICY MAKING;

EID: 84857820955     PISSN: 09670742     EISSN: 14643790     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/medlaw/fwr047     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Study 1 was entitled 'Facilitating Choice, Framing Choice: the Experience of Staff Working in PGD', January 2005-June 2007. On the research team were Clare Williams (PI), Kathryn Ehrich, Bobbie Farsides, Jane Sandall, Rosamund Scott, and Peter Braude. Clare Williams and Kathryn Ehrich conducted the interviews, and Bobbie Farsides ran the follow-up ethics discussion groups (EDG's). We would like to thank all those who participated in this research and also theWellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme for its grant (Grant no: 074935). Study 2 was entitled 'Ethical Frameworks for Embryo Donation: Views, Values and Practices of IVF/PGD Staff', August 2007- June 2010, funded by the Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme, Project Grant No 081414. Clare Williams was the PI, Kathryn Ehrich conducted the interviews, and Bobbie Farsides ran the follow-up ethics discussion groups (EDGs). Also on the team were Rosamund Scott, Sarah Franklin, Lene Koch, Sue Avery, and Peter Braude. Once again, we would like to thank all those who participated in the research as well as the Wellcome Trust for its support.
2. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's report, Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law (Stationary Office, London 2005), observes in Rec 2 (in part), para 46
3. Government Response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's report, Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law (Department of Health, London 2005), para 28
4. Warnock Report (Cmnd 9314), Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Fertilisation and Embryology, republished as A Question of Life (Blackwell, Oxford 1985)
5. M Brazier, 'Regulating the Reproduction Business' (1999) 7 Med LR 166, 172
6. HFE Act 1990, Sched 3, paras 1(1) and 2(1)
7. HFE Act 1990, ss 3(3) and (4); and Sched 2, para 3(2)
8. HFE Act 1990, as amended by the HFE Act 2008, Sched 2, para 3A (2)
9. Brazier, above, n 6, 187, 188
10. As governed by the HFE Acts
11. We discuss media portrayals of this kind of work further in K Ehrich, C Williams, and B Farsides, 'The Embryo as Moral Work Object: PGD/IVF Staff Views' (2008) 30/5 Sociology of Health & Illness 772, 774
12. B Farsides, C Williams, and P Alderson, 'Aiming Towards 'Moral Equilibrium': Health Care Professionals' Views on Working within the Morally Contested Field of Antenatal Screening' (2004) 30 J Med Ethics 505
13. See eg the account given by J Finnis, 'The Rights and Wrongs of Abortion: A Reply to Judith Thomson' (1973) 2 Phil & Pub Aff 117
14. As we observe in Ehrich, Williams, and Farsides, above, n 13, 784
15. For further discussion, see K Ehrich and CWilliams, 'A "Healthy Baby": The Double Imperative of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis' (2010) 14/1 Health (London) 41, 51
16. We discuss this further in Ehrich, Williams, and Farsides, above, n 13, 785
17. For the policy background to the HFEA's current policy on the number of embryos that may be transferred, see eg HFEA Expert Group on Multiple Births after IVF, One Child at a Time: Reducing Multiple Births After IVF (HFEA, London October 2006). Available at, http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/MBSET_report.pdf. Current figures are that more than 25% of IVF pregnancies in the UK are still multiple, that is, 40% of all IVF births are twins or triplets.
18. See, http://www.oneatatime.org.uk.
19. For current relevant policy guidance on embryo transfer, see HFEA, Code of Practice (8th edn HFEA, London 2009), Ch 7
20. We discuss this further in K Ehrich, C Williams, and B Farsides, above, n 13, 784
21. These criteria were those originally developed by the Joint Working Party of the HFEA and HGC and published in the Outcome of the Public Consultation on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, 2001. They are now instantiated in the HFE Act 1990, as amended by the HFE Act 2008, Sched 2, para 1ZA.
22. HFEA, above, n 20, para 10.6. At the time of our research, the wording was slightly different but the substance was the same.
23. HGC, Response to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority on the Consultation on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (2001) para 6. Available at, http://www.hgc.gov.uk/UploadDocs/DocPub/Document/statement_pgd.pdf.
24. We discuss this further in R Scott and others, 'The Appropriate Extent of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: Health Professionals' Views on the Requirement for a "Significant Risk of a Serious Genetic Condition"' (2007) 15 Med LR 320
25. Another concern might be a worry about the reasons for which possible people should be selected
26. For instance by Josephine Quintavalle who, together with Margaret Nolan, founded 'Comment on Reproductive Ethics' ('CORE') in 1994. This is a 'public interest group focusing on ethical dilemmas surrounding human reproduction, particularly the new technologies of assisted conception', as stated in the 'About' section of the CORE website, http://corethics.org. accessed 21 November 2011.
27. Quintavalle brought the case of The Queen on the Application of Quintavalle v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the 'saviour sibling' case [2003] EWCA Civ 667 (CA); [2005] 2 All ER 555 (HL)
28. We discuss this further in K Ehrich and others, 'Choosing Embryos: Ethical Complexity and Relational Autonomy in Staff Accounts of PGD' (2007) 29/7 Sociology of Health & Illness 1091, 1098
29. We discuss this further in K Ehrich and others, 'Testing the Embryo, Testing the Fetus' (2007) 2/4 Clinical Ethics 181, 184
30. HFE Act 1990, s 14(4) as amended by the HFE Act 2008
31. This was also a finding in SP Wainwright and others, 'Ethical Boundary-Work in the Embryonic Stem Cell Laboratory' (2006) 28 Sociology of Health & Illness 732. This aspect of our research is discussed in more detail in work by R Scott and others, to be published later in 2012 in this journal.