Participation in investigational fertility preservation research: a feminist research ethics approach.

Abstract

The goals and rhetoric of The Oncofertility Consortium (National Institutes of Health. NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Funded Research: Interdisciplinary Research, Interdisciplinary Research Consortium. http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/interdisciplinary/fundedresearch.asp. Accessed August 25, 2009) are aimed toward preserving cancer patients’ reproductive choices and facilitating their reproductive autonomy after cancer. While the end goals of oncofertility research are oriented toward safeguarding the possibility of biological reproduction for women and girls facing cancer treatments that may affect their fertility, considerable basic and clinical research is still needed in order for oocyte cryopreservation, in vitro follicle maturation, and ovarian tissue cryopreservation to become established fertility preservation techniques. From a feminist research ethics perspective, ethical standards for conducting both basic and clinical research must not only include but also go beyond ensuring institutional review board approval of human subjects research and collating evidence of safety and efficacy. To proceed with fertility preservation research in an ethical and just manner, it is also important to ask (1) on whose bodies is fertility preservation research dependant and (2) in selecting research subject populations, how should researchers balance the risks and benefits to prospective participants? This chapter applies a feminist research ethics approach to the oncofertility context, with a particular focus on the sources of oocytes and ovarian tissue for investigational fertility preservation research and the potential vulnerabilities of participating in this research.