Analysis of Ethical Dilemma
Analysis of Ethical Dilemma: Embryo Harvesting, Freezing and Genetic Manipulation – A Case of Posthumous Conception
Introduction
Nursing practice has evolved greatly from just offering care to patients who are physically sick to include family and community care. Technology has enhanced nursing practice and made possible things that seemed impossible years back. For instance it is now possible to preserve fertility through semen cryopreservation in which sperms are harvested and stored in frozen form. Such sperms can be thawed and used for artificial insemination. While such technological developments have many applications, they have many unresolved ethical issues that limit their applications. In this paper, the ethical issues related to use of sperms whose donor is already dead are evaluated. My stand on the issue is that posthumous conception should be allowed, but there should be proper policies to guide its application and avoid misuse.
Posthumous conception occurs when one biological parent is dead when the child is conceived. Usually, it occurs after a widow uses sperms retrieved from her late husband for artificial insemination. It is more common for posthumous conception to occur when the father is dead than when the mother is dead since it is harder to freeze ovum’s and the embryo will require a surrogate mother therefore involving a third party (Spivack, 2010). The sperms can be retrieved earlier on in life and stored in a sperm bank, or be retrieved when the man is dying r shortly after death. There are numerous ethical issues surrounding posthumous conception. First is the consent of the dead parent. Storing sperms in sperm banks is done for a variety of reasons. The most basic is as an “insurance” when one is undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy that may make one infertile or for soldiers being deployed to war. Where a written will does not exist, it is hard to determine whether the father wanted his sperms to be used after he is dead. In addition, retrieving sperms from a patient shortly before or after death is a challenge for medical practitioners since it is hard or impossible to get the consent of the dying father.
In addition to the ethical issue of consent, there is the legal issue of whether children conceived after the father is dead can inherit his property (Knauplund, 2004). Currently, there lacks robust policy to govern the use of sperms after the donor is dead. Under the Uniform Parentage Act, when a woman undergoes artificial insemination with the husbands consent, then the husband is the legal farther of the child (Stevenson-Popp, 2002). The legal challenge that faces ethics committees and courts is determining if the father gave consent for the use of his sperms after death. The cost of semen retrieval, freezing, storage and subsequent thawing, and artificial insemination is high and there arise the legal issue of using health insurance to pay for such costs. Besides, medical practitioners such as nurses and physicians, other stakeholders in the sector include the government and the family. The government is responsible for making policies while the family is involved due to its relation with the dead. If the wife can use stored sperms from her late husband to get a child, can the husband’s parent use the same sperms and a different mother to get a blood grandchild? Such questions can be answered through policies (Acker, 2013).
Impact on Social Values, Morals, Norms and Nursing Practice
Socially, posthumous conception is a new practice and its social reception is largely guided by cultural and religious values. It is morally wrong to do a posthumous conception without the consent of the father when he was alive. Artificial insemination used with frozen sperms comes with screening the embryo for genetic disorders before implantation. If parents can choose what gender and other attributes their child will have, it is turning children into commodities that can be customized to the parents tastes. This is a great contrast with social and moral norms since human life is not a commodity for trade. On the other hand, posthumous conception can give relief when the couple has been trying to have children. The issue of posthumous conception has posed new ethical challenges to nursing practice. For instance, in the case of a dying man, nurses have to prioritize between giving the patient proper and dignified end of life care and preparing the patient for sperm retrieval (Knapp et al., 2011).
Application of Ethical Theories
An ethical dilemma results when one has to choose between equally bad options or options that are morally wrong. For instance, nurses work to alleviate suffering. A woman may suffer for lack of a child after the husband dies and nurses have an ethical duty alleviate such suffering. However, choosing posthumous conception to give the widow a child may be against the wish of the dead father who had not given consent for use of his sperms after he dies. Ethical theories help nurses to resolve such dilemma and reach a decision that is agreeable to most people and is necessarily legal. The ethical theories are based on nursing principles such as patient autonomy, fidelity, standard of best interest, non-maleficence and beneficence.
References
Acker, J. M. (2013). The Case for an Unregulated Private Sperm Donation Market. UCLA
Women's Law Journal, 20(1).
Knapp, C., Quinn, G., Bower, B., & Zoloth, L. (2011). Posthumous Reproduction and Palliative
Care. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 14(8), 895-898.
Knaplund, K. S. (2004). Postmoterm Conception and a Father’s Last Will. Arizona Law Review,
46(91), 91-115.
Stevenson-Popp, S. C. (2002). I Have Loved You in My Dreams: Posthumous Reproduction and
the Need for Change in the Uniform Parentage Act. Cath. UL Rev., 52, 727.
Spivack, C. (2010). The law of Surrogate Motherhood in the United States. American Journal of
Comparative Law, 58, 97-114.
