Posted by Prof Comisso
on February 2, 2009, 12:55 am
69.232.70.204
Sorry i was MIA when questions arose in the wee hours of Friday am, but I'm happy to see that my confidence in students is quite justified--you all did quite well dealing with your own questions about prompts, what Kant, Mill, etc. said, and any other matters that came up.
My question now is about the justifiability of the decision to give birth to octuplets (it was not know that there were 8 babies, but it was known that this would be a multiple birth of significant size). I ask this to the pro-life folks first. Normally, women using fertility treatments and have more than one or two zygotes as a result have abortions: the extra embryos are taken out to guarantee a relatively safe birth and relatively healthy development of the fetus in the womb. Is abortion in such cases also impermissible? We discussed a case below regarding parents who refused medical treatment for their child; is this so different? It is very probable that not all of these babies are going to be normal, even if all of them live. Isn't having too many children similar, when it means risking the life and certainly the welfare of the children?
Now, for pro-choice folks: If the mother refuses to abort part of the gang in order to guarantee the lives of a smaller number, can the doctors treating her refuse to care for her unless she agrees to a partial abortion? Wouldn't this violate her right to choose as much as not allowing her to have an abortion? But...isn't it in the children's interest?
final question: This young lady already had 6 children. There is no father, all were conceived from IVF. Should a person in such circumstances be permitted to undergo fertility treatments for a seventh time? The clinic defended itself on the ground that they don't discriminate--just because people already have families, are or are not married, or are in good or not so good socio-economic circumstances, it doesn't mean they should not have the right to have a child. When the IVF procedure was done, the clinic had no way of knowing that 8 zygotes would result. So was their action defensible?
I remember when we discussed public policy on abortion, I asked why girls need their parent's permission to have an abortion if they don't need parental permission to have a child. Well, here we are--altho I don't believe this girl is a minor.
Anyway, what are your comments? We're kind of off the war unit (more on this in a day or two), but I've been wanting to ask you about this but didn't want to distract you from the papers!
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