News, Resources, and Events Tagged "Reproductive Technologies"
Reproductive Technologies and the Law Third Edition
Reproductive Technologies and the Law is designed to introduce our students to the essentials in science, medicine, law and ethics that underpin and shape each of the topics that…
Video available! IVF Add-Ons: Scientific, Ethical, Regulatory, and Legal Considerations
Online Viewing Check out the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #IVFAddOns. Watch fully captioned video of the event. Event Description In-vitro fertilization (IVF) patients can now choose from a number…
How Old Is Too Old to Be a Parent?
For the second week running, fertility and ageing were the focus of an online event held by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), the charity that publishes BioNews. This time, the…
Congress Needs To Decide If Gene Editing Is Permissible For Sperm And Eggs
In a recent article in The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Professor I. Glenn Cohen of Harvard Law School, Professor Jacob Sherkow of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and…
I’ve Spent Decades Studying How People Build Their Families. Here’s What I’ve Learned Matters Most
For decades people have raised concerns about families that vary from the structure of one mother, one father and biological children and assumed that the children would be harmed in…
Gene Editing Sperm and Eggs (not Embryos): Does it Make a Legal or Ethical Difference?
Heritable, human genome editing constitutes one of the most contentious issues facing science policy. This was starkly illustrated by Dr. He’s unsafe, unethical, and irresponsible editing of twin…
Assisted Same-Sex Reproduction: The Promise of Haploid Stem Cells?
Same-sex couples, not unlike their heterosexual counterparts, would prefer having a genetically related child. However, assisted same-sex human reproduction has heretofore been deemed infeasible absent haploid cellular analogs of human…
Fertility Fraud, Legal Firsts, and Medical Ethics
From the article: On May 5, 2019, Indiana became the first state to legislate against a doctor's failure to obtain his fertility patient's consent before inseminating her using his own…
How Close Are We to the End of Infertility?
Advances in stem cell research could change what it means to reproduce. Are we ready for the next revolution in baby-making science?
Book Talk: Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law
Couldn't join us for the book talk? Check out some of the speakers' slide presentations and blog posts! Description Millions of Americans rely on the likes of birth control,…
Health Law Workshop: Dov Fox: Redressing Future Losses
Presentation Download the Presentation: "Redressing Future Losses" About the Presenter Dov Fox is the Herzog Endowed Scholar, Professor of Law, and Director of the Center for Health Law Policy &…
The Risks of Pregnancy-Tracking Apps
From the article: App companies should address potential user privacy concerns by engineering their products to be more secure by design, re-examining what data they provide to whom, and by…
A Question of Prevention: I. Glenn Cohen on a procedure to avoid passing on genetic mutations, and the push to legalize it
From the article: Calls are growing for the U.S. to lift a ban on mitochondrial replacement therapy, or MRT, a procedure developed to enable women who are at risk…
Creating eggs and sperm from stem cells: the next big thing in assisted reproduction?
[...] We are already in an age of disruptive reproductive technologies. Babies have been born using mitochondrial replacement techniques, often known as three-parent babies. News of mice born to same-sex parents…
The Second Reproductive Revolution: Glenn Cohen delivers chair lecture
From the article: Technology is changing reproduction, says Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03, one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics and the law. In…
2019 Petrie-Flom Center Annual Conference: Consuming Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies
Couldn't join us for the conference? Join the conversation on Twitter with #DTCgenome! And check out many of our speakers' slide presentations and our "Consuming Genetics" blog symposium! The…
I. Glenn Cohen Chair Lecture - The Second Reproductive Revolution: From Gene Editing, to Uterus Transplants, to Embryos Derived from Our Skin – How Technology Is Changing Reproduction
Dean John F. Manning honored I. Glenn Cohen on the occasion of his appointment as the James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law Professor Cohen, who is also…
Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: Considering the Future of U.S. Policy on "Three-Parent IVF"
Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #MRTpanel and some of our speakers' slide presentations below! Learn more about the issues! Check out media coverage supporting…
Losing Embryos, Finding Justice: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Personhood
From the article: On 3 March 2018, a liquid nitrogen storage tank broke down at University Hospitals Fertility Center in Cleveland, Ohio. More than 950 patients lost over 4000 eggs and embryos (also called …
When Your Dreams of Motherhood Are Destroyed
From the article: Neither major political party is expected to push for more regulation. Democrats aren’t likely to touch fertility because of how close the issue is to…
The Petrie-Flom Center and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Fellow-in-Residence, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School, and Edmond J. Safra Center, Harvard University
Each year the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University hosts several fellows-in-residence. For 2019-20, they are concentrating their fellowships on the Ethics of Technological…
Petrie-Flom Center and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Fellow-in-Residence: The Ethics of Technological and Biomedical Innovation
Each year the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University hosts several fellows-in-residence. For 2019-20, they are concentrating their fellowships on the Ethics of Technological and Biomedical Innovation. …
Moratoria and Innovation in the Reproductive Sciences: Of Pretext, Permanence, Transparency, and Timelimits
From the abstract: As progress in the biosciences soldiers forth, new breakthroughs can often be swept up in a common narrative, that is, the narrative of science as a disruptive…
Valuations of Life: Birth defects, prenatal diagnoses, and disability, Uppsala University, Sweden
General Description: Definitions of what counts as a valuable life implicitly and explicitly saturate both historical and contemporary narratives about birth defects, prenatal diagnoses, and disability. The aim of this…
Preventing Mitochondrial Diseases: Embryo-Sparing Donor-Independent Options
Abstract Mutant mitochondrial DNA gives rise to a broad range of incurable inborn maladies. Prevention may now be possible by replacing the mutation-carrying mitochondria of zygotes or oocytes at risk…
Assisted Reproduction in Israel: Law, Religion, and Culture
From the article: The theme of this composition is the right to procreate in the Israeli context. Our discussion of this right includes the implementation of the right to procreate,…
Can Lost Embryos Give Rise to a Wrongful-Death Suit?
From the article: Over a single weekend in March, an unprecedented disaster hit fertility clinics—twice. First came the news that the University Hospitals Fertility Center in Ohio, lost…
Assisted Reproduction in Israel: Law, Religion, and Culture
From the article: The theme of this composition is the right to procreate in the Israeli context. Our discussion of this right includes the implementation of the right to procreate,…
Preventing Mitochondrial Disease: A Path Forward
Abstract: In a possible first, the heritable transmission of a fatal mitochondrial DNA disease (Leigh syndrome) may have been prevented by replacing the mutation-bearing mitochondria of oocytes with donated mutation-free…
Divorced couple take their fight over frozen embryos to Colorado Supreme Court
From the story: What happens when the parents who created frozen embryos go to war with each other over whether to procreate with them or destroy them? That's the…
Court to weigh if one parent has the right to use frozen embryos if the other objects: Case before the Colorado Supreme Court hinges on a person's right to procreate - or not procreate.
From the article: On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Rookses' case. Although several other cases have made their way to states' high courts, legal…
Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #healthlawpreview2018 and some of our speakers' slide presentations below! Description The Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review…
Health Law Workshop: Vardit Ravitsky
Presentation Topic: "The Shifting Landscape of Prenatal Testing: Between Reproductive Autonomy and Public Health" This paper is not available for download. To request a copy in preparation for the workshop,…
The Debate over Postmortem Sperm Retrieval of Fallen Soldiers
This essay is based in part on the workshop the Petrie-Flom Center hosted on October 23, 2017, in which then-Visiting Scholar Avishalom Westreich presented his research-in-progress to a diverse group of religious,…
HLS in the World: New Technologies, New Dilemmas: Part of the HLS200 Bicentennial Celebration
This event was part of the HLS in the World sessions of HLS │200, a bicentennial summit of academic sessions and programs devoted to legal issues of pressing importance. Panel Description …
Book Launch: Law, Religion, and Health in the United States
In July 2017, Cambridge University Press published Law, Religion, and Health in the United States, co-edited by outgoing Petrie-Flom Center Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch, Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen, and…
Health Law Workshop: Jody L. Madeira
Presentation Download the Presentation: "Terminating the Paper Trail: Evaluating the Efficacy of a Multimedia Informed Consent Application in Reproductive Medicine" For context, please also read: "Is Informed Consent in Reproductive…
Artificial wombs are coming. They could completely change the debate over abortion.
From the article: There’s a scientific development on the horizon that could upend the abortion debate: artificial wombs. The research remains preliminary, but in April a group of…
How New Technology Could Threaten a Woman’s Right to Abortion
From the article: [...] It could also complicate—and even jeopardize—the right to an abortion in an America in which that right is predicated on whether a fetus…
Locked Out Of Asia, Americans Are Turning To Eastern Europe To Hire Gestational Surrogates
From the article: [...] While it’s impossible to know “what’s presented to you versus what’s really occurring,” Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn…
‘Sperminator’ Ari Nagel spreads more seed on recent Israel visit
From the article: [...] According to Harvard law professor and bioethics expert I. Glenn Cohen, there is no law that prohibits Nagel’s sperm donations. At the same time, there…
Babies From Skin Cells? Prospect Is Unsettling to Some Experts
From the article: Three prominent academics in medicine and law sounded an alarm about the possible consequences in a paper published this year. “I.V.G. may raise the…
ORDER NOW & GET 20% OFF! Law, Religion, and Health in the United States
About the Book: While the law can create conflict between religion and health, it can also facilitate religious accommodation and protection of conscience. Finding this balance is critical to addressing…
Harvard Medical School 2017 Bioethics Conference: The Ethics of "Making Babies"
Description The use of assisted reproductive technologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical procedures in the United States. In a field…
Call for Papers, AMA Journal of Ethics
The AMA Journal of Ethics® is an open-access, MEDLINE-indexed online journal of expert-solicited and peer-reviewed content that receives over one million visits annually (and growing). Our editorial…
Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: Unmade in the USA
From the article: Mitochondrial replacement therapy, an experimental approach that takes aim at maternally inherited mitochondrial diseases, is on the verge of being implemented in the United Kingdom, almost 2 years…
Fifth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't make it to the event? Check out some of the speakers' slides as well as the Health Affairs blog symposium! Description The Fifth Annual Health Law Year in…
A New Fertility Technique Could Make ‘Designer Babies’ a Reality
From the article: In vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, is a technique that could allow any kind of cell to be programmed into a sperm or an egg cell. This means,…
The Promise and Peril of Emerging Reproductive Technologies
Harvard scientists call for proactively addressing legal, ethical challenges before an experimental technique reaches the clinic At a glance: In-vitro gametogenesis is an experimental technique that allows scientists to grow…
How Is It Even Possible For Sofía Vergara’s Embryos To Sue Her? A Harvard Law Prof Weighs In
From the article: The already-unusual legal battleover Modern Family actress Sofía Vergara’s frozen embryos reached a surprising new chapter on Tuesday — when the embryos sued…
Should We Ban Anonymous Sperm Donation?
From the article: There’s a push underway to change the way that most sperm is donated in the United States — which is to say, anonymously. That&rsquo…
Call for Abstracts: The Ethics of “Making Babies”, Harvard Medical School
The use of assisted reproductive technologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical procedures in the United States. In a field marked…
“Sperm Donor Anonymity and Compensation: An Experiment with American Sperm Donors”: New Scholarship from Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen
Prohibiting Sperm Donor Anonymity Could Reduce the Number of Donors: A new study published in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences (JLB) suggests that prohibiting anonymous sperm donation would…
Professor offers basics of bioethics and the law in 90 minutes: Harvard expert breaks down complex topic for Ed Portal and online audience
On September 13, 2016, Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen delivered a lecture at the Harvard Ed Portal as part of his online EdX course "Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of…
Is Medical Tourism Ethical?: Profile of I. Glenn Cohen's work as a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar
Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen served as a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar, Class of 2015. The Greenwall Foundation recently published a profile of Cohen's project, "Is Medical Tourism Ethical?": …
Bioethics and the Law of Reproductive Technology and Genetics: Free Public Lecture by Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen
Genetic enhancements. Reproductive technologies. Animal-human hybrids. Through new technologies and discoveries in science, we are able to do amazing things. However, these new developments have brought many questions to the…
Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics: New EdX Course from Faculty Director Glenn Cohen
Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics An introduction to the study of bioethics and the application of legal and ethical reasoning. Course begins on September 6, 2016.…
5 ways to avoid fighting over frozen embryos
[...] In a new paper, two experts review this history and propose five specific guidelines. The results could offer clarity for disputes over any of the estimated million or so frozen…
Embryo Disposition Disputes: Controversies and Case Law
Abstract: When prospective parents use in vitro fertilization, many of them hope to generate more embryos than they intend to implant immediately. The technology often requires multiple attempts to reach…
Religion and Reproductive Technology
Abstract: This chapter will examines places where law, religion, and reproductive technology conflict. It examines four particular intersections: The first involves religiously motivated denials of service, in particular as they…
Harvard Medical School’s 2016 Bioethics Conference: Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care: Core to our Mission or None of our Business?
Couldn't make it to the conference? Join the conversation on Twitter using #HMSABC! Description This multidisciplinary program was co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and…
The Limits to Consumerism in Health Care: A Lecture by Mary Anne Bobinski
Couldn't attend the event? Check out some of our speakers' slide presentations! Description It is often said that health care has moved from paternalism, in the form of &ldquo…
Going Germline: Mitochondrial Replacement as a Guide to Genome Editing
Mitochondrial replacement (MR) serves as a crucial test case and learning guide for the scientific, ethical, and regulatory challenges of future reproductive breakthroughs. The lessons learned from the regulatory review…
Fourth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't attend in person? Learn more about the event: Learn more about the presentations - check out select speakers' slides below! Check out the collaborative blog series on the…
Moral Bioprediction, Bioenhancement, and the Law: A Lecture by Julian Savulescu
Description Increasingly, knowledge from biology and neuroscience allows us to identify biological states that are predictive but not determinative of human behavior in certain situations. These are called biomarkers of…
Complexifying Commodification, Consumption, ART, and Abortion
Abstract: This commentary on Madeira's paper complicates the relationships between commodification, consumption, abortion, and assisted reproductive technologies she draws in two ways. First, I examine under what conditions the…
2015 Annual Conference: Law, Religion, and Health in America
Join the conversation on Twitter! @PetrieFlom #lawreligionhealth And check out many of the speakers' slide presentations below! Conference Description Religion and medicine have historically gone hand in hand, but increasingly…
After Hobby Lobby: What Is Caesar's, What Is God's?
Couldn't join us in person? Join the conversation on Twitter! @PetrieFlom #lawreligionhealth Pre-Conference Session As prelude to the 2015 Petrie-Flom Center Annual Conference, “Law, Religion, and Health in America,…
NOW ONLINE: I. Glenn Cohen Discusses Modern Fertility Technologies and Benefits
Show Abstract: The birds and the bees are still important – but today's couples eager to start a family can also rely on Big Data to get them to…
Transatlantic Lessons in Regulation of Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: prospect of disease-free children for women carriers through MRT
Cambridge, Mass., April 9, 2015 – A paper forthcoming on Friday in Science discusses the regulation of a new technology that gives hope to women who carry genetic disease. Mutant mitochondrial DNA…
Trio contrast approaches taken by Britain versus the US concerning mitochondrial replacement therapy
Glenn Cohen, with Harvard University, Julian Savulescu, with the University of Oxford and Eli Adashi with Brown University have together written and published a Perspectives piece in the journal Science,…
Is UK evaluation of reproductive tech a model for US?
When the United Kingdom resoundingly approved mitochondrial replacement therapy in February, it became the first country to give people this new medical option. In parallel it gave the United States…
Families Matter: Ethically, Legally, and Clinically
Program We often talk, in bioethics, about individual autonomy. Yet our most challenging ethical, legal and clinical controversies in health care often center around family roles and responsibilities: How should…
Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism, Law, and Ethics
Live Webstream Watch the event live online! Description Medical tourism is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry involving millions of patients who travel abroad each year to get health care. Some…
Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review collaborative blogging with Health Affairs
The Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review was a big success! Video will be posted on our website shortly, but our presenters will be posting on their respective…
Law Professor Discusses Medical Tourism
When most people hear the word “tourism,” they immediately think of flocking to the sandy beaches of the Caribbean or exploring museums in a European city. For Harvard…
Law and Ethics of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing
The Petrie-Flom Center hosted a discussion of the issues surrounding noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), a screening method for detecting certain specific chromosomal abnormalities, as well as sex, in utero. NIPT…
Global Reproduction: Health, Law, and Human Rights in Surrogacy and Egg Donation
A screening of the documentary Can We See the Baby Bump, Please?, which was followed by a panel discussion of the legal and human rights issues surrounding surrogacy and egg…
Freezing Eggs to Put off Pregnancy - Clever Business Move but Not Magic Bullet: Experts
From the article: [...] Although companies consider their offer to freeze eggs to be a benefit for female employees, Glenn Cohen, a Professor of Law at Harvard University, believes there is…
Egg freezing message: Lean in, and save the kids for later
From the article: [...] Glenn Cohen, a professor at Harvard Law School, worries that an egg-freezing perk could function as a sorting mechanism, too. Soon, he fears, we’ll be…
Facebook and Apple Are Now Paying for Egg Freezing
In this segment of HuffPost Live, host Nancy Redd interviews Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen to discuss the recent news that Facebook and Apple will now offer their employees the…
Apple, Facebook Will Pay for Employees to Freeze Their Eggs
From the article: [...] Glenn Cohen, a professor at Harvard Law School and an expert in the intersection of bioethics and law, said the perk could be perceived in several different…
Jeanne Shaheen says Scott Brown backed bill to let employers use religious opt-out on mammograms
From the article: [...] Holly Fernandez Lynch, a Harvard bioethicist and author of Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise, called the claim "technically true" but "a bit of…
Inquisitive Nashville teen finds her egg donor mom
Originally published as "Nashville teen finds her egg donor mom," The Tennesseean (June 5, 2014). [...] The identity of U.S. sperm and egg donors is protected by default. In the United Kingdom,…
Delaying Pregnancy and Parenthood: Risks and Rewards
In a new report, the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC has confirmed that the average age at which American women deliver their first babies has increased in…
2014 Annual Conference: Behavioral Economics, Law, and Health Policy
Couldn't join us in person at Harvard Law School? Join the conversation on Twitter using #BELHP2014! We also liveblogged the full event at Bill of Health throughout the conference…
What (If Anything) Is Wrong with Human Enhancement? What (If Anything) Is Right with It?
Abstract: Should human enhancement be prohibited? Subsidized? Mandated? Taxed? This article is part of a symposium honoring one of my wonderful mentors: Einer Elhauge. It focuses on human enhancement. With…
Health Law Workshop: Hank Greely
Presentation Download excerpts from Hank Greely's new book, The End of Sex: The Future of Human Reproduction, here. About the Presenter Hank Greely is Director for the Center for…
An Interview with I. Glenn Cohen on Law and Bioscience
There are huge changes taking place in the world of biosciences, and whether it's new discoveries in stem cell research, new reproductive technologies, or genetics being used to make…
Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't attend in person? Learn more about the event: Learn more about the presentations - check out select speakers' slides below! Watch the video of this conference online! (See…
Past sperm and egg donors split on losing anonymity
[...] The ethical considerations of egg and sperm donor anonymity are complicated, researchers said. "Those in favor of non-anonymity or mandatory identification rules tend to argue from the perspective of the…
These Two Americans Want Babies Through Indian Surrogates.: It's Not Been Easy.
[...] An estimated 2,000 foreign babies are born to Indian surrogates each year, according to research in the forthcoming book Patients With Passports: Medical Tourism, Ethics, and Law, by Harvard law professor…
Announcing the New Journal of Law and the Biosciences
The Petrie-Flom Center and Harvard Law School are delighted to announce our partnership with Duke University, Stanford University, and Oxford University Press to launch a new peer-reviewed, open access, online…
Supreme Court to decide Obamacare birth control mandate
[...] Ms. Lynch said the outcome is a particularly hard one to predict. But she thinks the court will dispense with the constitutional claims and focus more heavily on religious-freedom protection…
Can You Buy Sperm Donor Identification?: An Experiment
In the United States, most sperm donations are anonymous. By contrast, many developed nations require sperm donors to be identified, typically requiring new sperm (and egg) donors to put identifying…