Bioethics, Logic, and the Law

May 10, 2006

Most of the bioethical issues in America are a result of what the philosopher H. Tristram Engelhardt calls “an embarrassment of riches.” Technological advances such as IVF have allowed us to create new more challenges that were once inconceivable. Add to this the obtuseness of statutory law and the ethical conundrums created can become downright bizarre.

A prime example comes from the UK, where a British couple is attempting to save embryos they had stored in the hope of having a child through a host surrogate mother. Embryos created for research or other use can be kept for ten years, but because of the vagaries of the law, IVF clinics are forced to destroy unused embryos created for surrogacy after five years.

Martin Hymers and Michelle Hickman only option now is to try to store the embryos overseas, potentially bringing them back after the law is changed. “There is just no logic to it at all,” says Hickman. “Why would you discriminate against people like that?” Unfortunately, when bioethics and the law intersect, logic is often left out.