Abstract

Artificial reproductive technologies such as sperm and egg donation, in vitro fertilization, and surrogate motherhood all in principle separate the family from its biological foundation. These technologies enable and promote contemporary social trends that disconnect the family from its biological basis and claim that a family is constituted by an act of will, irrespective of biology. The article discusses three recent documentary films made by American Center for Bioethics and Culture, which consist of interviews with children born from sperm donation and women involved in egg donation and surrogate motherhood, to identify how the biological understanding of parenthood is undermined by these technologies and the ethical and anthropological consequences that follow. The author concludes that these technologies are also in principle available to single persons and to homosexuals to enable them to "have" children. He warns that potential and real deleterious effects of such behavior will be satisfying adults' whims by children.

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