The 'Healthy' Embryo: Social, Biomedical, Legal and Philosophical Perspectives

by Jeff Nisker, Françoise Baylis, Isabel Karpin, Carolyn McLeod, Roxanne Mykitiuk

Overview

Public attention on embryo research has never been greater. Modern reproductive medicine technology and the use of embryos to generate stem cells ensure that this will continue to be a topic of debate and research across many disciplines. This multidisciplinary book explores the concept of a 'healthy' embryo, its implications on the health of children and adults, and how perceptions of what constitutes child and adult health influence the concept of embryo 'health'. The concept of human embryo health is considered from preconception to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to recent foetal surgical approaches. Burgeoning capacities in both genetic and reproductive science and their clinical implications have catalysed the necessity to explore the concept of a 'healthy' embryo. The authors are from five countries and 13 disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, biological sciences and medicine, ensuring that the book has a broad coverage and approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521748131
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/24/2009
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jeff Nisker is Professor of Obstetrics-Gynecology and Oncology, and Coordinator of Health Ethics and Humanities at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Françoise Baylis is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Bioethics and Philosophy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Isabel Karpin is Professor of Law, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Carolyn Wendy McLeod is Associate Professor and Graduate Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Roxanne Mykitiuk is Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgements xiv

Section I Human embryos

1 What is an embryo and how do we know? Jane Maienschein Jason Scott Robert 1

2 Human embryos: donors' and non-donors' perspectives on embryo moral status Jackie Leach Scully Christoph Rehmann-Sutter Rouven Porz 16

3 Property, privacy and other legal constructions of human embryos Radhika Rao 32

4 Informed consent for the age of pluripotency and embryo triage: from alienation, anonymity and altruism to connection, contact and care Charis Thompson 45

Section II Creating 'human' embryos

5 Interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer: not yet 'healthy' human embryos Jose Cibelli Kai Wang 61

6 Parthenogenesis and other strategies to create human embryos for stem cell research and regenerative medicine Paul De Sousa 70

7 Creating humanesque embryos Francoise Baylis 80

Section III 'Healthy' human embryos

8 A visual dialogue on 'healthy' human embryos from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries Lianne McTavish 97

9 Social determinants of 'health' of embryos Roxanne Mykitiuk Jeff Nisker 116

10 Taking care of the 'health' of preconceived human embryos or constructing legal harms Isabel Karpin 136

11 Public understandings of a 'healthy' embryo: a citizen deliberation on preimplantation genetic diagnosis Susan M. Cox Jeff Nisker 151

Section IV 'Healthy' human embryos and research

12 Donating fresh versus frozen embryos to stem cell research: in whose interests? Carolyn McLeod Francoise Baylis 171

13 Embryo health and embryo research Angela White Robyn Bluhm 187

Section V 'Healthy' human embryos and reproduction

14 Making embryos healthy or making healthy embryos: how much of a difference between prenatal treatment and selection? Adrienne Asch David Wasserman 201

15 Facing up to the disability critique of the use of genetic testing and selection to combat disease Daniel M. Weinstock 220

16 'Healthy' human embryos and symbolic harm Elisabeth Gedge 233

17 Saviour siblings, other siblings and whole organ donation Sally Sheldon Stephen Wilkinson 251

About the contributors 266

Index 276