Shall we "reproduce"? I. The medical ethics of in vitro fertilization.

Abstract

I must judge that in vitro fertilization constitutes unethical medical experimentation on possible future human beings, and therefore it is subject to absolute moral prohibition. I ask that my exact language be noted: I said, unethical experimentation onpossible future human beings. By this, I mean the childto-be, the successful experiments when they come. I mean to exclude three things that could be said additionally to make a showing of medical immorality and a notation of illicitness upon the trials that are currently being performed. Excluded are (1) the charge that before going to human experimentation physicians should not have omitted first proving their technique in species more closely related to man, on the primates, eg, monkeys. This is a question of the background needed in the experimental design which an amateur cannot judge. Still I do know enough about discussions among ethical physicians concerning the need to complete the