Abstract
When in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments first appeared in Hungarian legislation, the related experiences and the moral dilemmas of couples who go through these procedures were unknown. Couples have to make a great variety of decisions during the IVF process. In our study, we focus on the journey of the human embryo in IVF treatment through the ethical lenses of women. In order to explore the differences between established ethical and legal frameworks and the perspectives of women who have participated in an IVF procedure in Hungary, we conducted semi-structured interviews. In contrast to the static view of embryos typical to a part of the ethics literature, which also characterizes most established legal frameworks, patients’ view of embryos of interviewees was dynamic: they interpreted embryos in a malleable and constantly changing way. Embryos were perceived differently depending on time, place, and biological characteristics, and primarily in relation to how they could contribute to achieving the goals of treatment. In this article, we also demonstrate that the main ethical framework that the participants in our research evoked in relation to the IVF process was related to the ethics of medical treatment. At the end of the paper we also make an attempt to draw some conclusions that may help ameliorate problems with the current normative ethical and legal framework by incorporating the experiences of women who participate in IVF procedures.
Highlights
Since the first baby was born in 1978 with the assistance of in vitro fertilization (IVF), millions of children have come into the world via artificial reproductive technologies
It maps out the ethical frameworks applied in the accounts of IVF customers when they discuss decisions they made involving the moral status of the embryo
The accounts of interviewees reveal that most of the decisions about embryos were predominantly motivated by interviewees’ own interest in the success of treatment, or the desire that the treatment would occur with the least possible difficulty—especially during the IVF procedure itself, before successfully having a child
Summary
Since the first baby was born in 1978 with the assistance of in vitro fertilization (IVF), millions of children have come into the world via artificial reproductive technologies. The culture of assisted reproduction in a country can be characterized lilla ic ek, j di ndo & fia ba e by the way embryos are viewed and treated, and the way ethical considerations guide technopolitical decisions concerning embryos. Earlier research on the conceptualization and definition of embryos and the decision-making process based on these focused mainly on those countries in which there was strong emphasis on open, public debate about the moral status of the embryo. This study examines patients’ ethical decisions at the intersection of sociology, bioethics, law, and science and technology studies (STS). It maps out the ethical frameworks applied in the accounts of IVF customers when they discuss decisions they made involving the moral status of the embryo. Within the framework of this research, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with women
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