Crossroads in the bioethics of reproduction

This chapter highlights various governance challenges presented by human reproductive technologies—for example, challenges that relate to the contestability of key bioethical values, to the need for governance to be responsive to new technologically enabled options, and to cultural pluralism. Already, we recognise that the application of these technologies raises complex ethical issues and poses challenges to fundamental rights, such as human dignity, the right to privacy, and the principle of non-discrimination; and, as new genetic technologies emerge, with applications that extend beyond infertility, there is pressure to reconsider the previously accepted ethical framework of informed consent, bodily integrity, and reproductive ethics. Moreover, governance of the wide variety of reproductive technologies reflects culturally embedded preferences and principles, such as pronatalism or reproductive autonomy, and this plurality presenting a challenge to ambitions for international bioethical governance. Looking ahead, governance should consider more than purely technical questions so that it takes into account the effects of these technologies on family and sexual relationships, perceptions of the body and gender identity, and on social relations in general.