For Muslims all over the world, whether in North America where they form minorities or in all-Muslim societies, their religion permeates every aspect of their lives and ethical decision-making. It is no wonder that when deliberating the treatment of infertility or the introduction of cloning to the world, Muslims look to their Islamic scholars and await their decision on such matters. They are the ones with the most knowledge of the Quran, Sunnah, and other sources used in Islam. This thesis (...) will explore the ethics of assisted reproduction technologies and human reproductive cloning from an Islamic ethical perspective. I will investigate the principles and regulations that are used today in the Islamic analysis of both practices. (shrink)

Purpose: The objective of this study is to determine the importance of supplementary medical ethics course for resident physicians. In this study, we assessed the current state of their knowledge of medical ethics and aimed to improve and deepen their understanding of clinical scenarios to increase their awareness of the link between the practice of medicine and ethical issues. Methods: The course was held for groups of 10-12 people for 3 days a week for a total of 6 hours. Tests (...) given prior to and following completion of the course were used to assess the effectiveness of a medical ethics training course in which 120 resident physicians completed. The evaluation was made on the basis of the same pre-and post-tests (14 scenarios) and direct observation of participants. Result and Discussion: The average age was 28.23 ± 4.08 and 25% were female and 75% were male. Of the participants, 68.3% were training to be internists, 24.2% were training to be surgeons, and 7.5% were training in laboratory medicine. There was a significant statistical difference between the mean total scores of both tests (p=0.00). After completing the course, residents took into account the medical ethical principles while discussing ethical decisions. Conclusion: After finishing the course, participants defended their responses in regard to issues of medical ethics more carefully and articulated their thoughts more clearly. Our experience demonstrated that the trainees benefited from a structured curriculum in medical ethics. We believe that the development and implementation of our course may serve as a case study for training resident physicians in medical ethics. (shrink)

In the late summer and fall of 1983 articles appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, and Science News telling of attempts to set up an agency for the selling of kidneys from living donors. The shortage of organs, especially of kidneys where the transplantation success has increased quite markedly over the past decade, has become something of a crisis. A situation of increased need and inadequate supply is also becoming a problem for such substances as (...) human bone marrow, for use in the treatment of immune and blood diseases, and large quantities of human plasma for use by hemophiliacs. Obtaining a kidney for a patient in renal failure was difficult in the past because adequate matching is likely only between very close relatives. Now with new immunosuppressant drugs such as cyclosporine, close matches have become less important. Cadaver organs or marrow from unrelated living donors can be used with far greater success. The supply problem is still immense and the literature is filled with suggestions for appropriate and efficient means of organ acquisition. One of the latest suggestions involves a system of salvaging based on implied consent of deceased donors. The organs would be taken without asking directly for permission from family. The relatives would have the right to object to the organ removal, but unless they did so, the organ would be taken when needed. (shrink)

Canada's Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies rejects all forms of surrogacy arrangement under the rubric of objecting to commercial surrogacy. Noncommercial surrogacy arrangements, however, can be defended against the commission's objections. They can be viewed as cases of giving a benefit or service to another in a way that expresses benevolence, and establishes a relationship between surrogates and prospective 'social' parents that allows mutual understanding and reciprocal personal interaction between them.

I will argue the free market in babies or in women's bodies created by an institution of paid surrogate motherhood is contrary to Kantian principles of personhood and to the feminist principle that men do not have-and cannot gain through contract, marriage, or payment of money-a right to the sexual or reproductive use of women's bodies.

Surrogacy and adoption are both family-making measures subject to extensive domestic and international regulation. In this nationally representative survey study (N = 1552), we explore public attitudes to various forms of surrogacy and adoption in the United Kingdom, in response to an early proposal to allow “double donor” surrogacy as part of the ongoing legal reform project. We sought to both gauge public moral support for adoption and surrogacy generally, the effect that prospective parents’ fertility had on this support, and (...) the extent to which the public would find equivalencies between “double donor” surrogacy (DDS) and planned private adoption (PPA) to be morally significant. Our findings indicate that whilst there is broad baseline support for all forms of adoption and surrogacy, this support increases significantly when one or both prospective parents are infertile. These findings also suggest that the language in which a family-making arrangement is characterized has a greater influence on moral support for the arrangement than practical features such as the biological relationship (or absence thereof) between one/both parents and the child. (shrink)

Because it is often argued that surrogacy should not be treated as contractual, the question arises in which terms this practice might then be couched. In this article, I argue that a phenomenology of surrogacy centering on the notion of trust provides a description that is illuminating from the moral point of view. My thesis is that surrogacy establishes a complex and extended reproductive unit––the “surrogacy triad” consisting of the surrogate mother, the child, and the intending parents––whose constituents are bound (...) together by mutual trustful commitments. Even though a trust-based approach does not provide an ultimate answer to whether surrogacy should be sanctioned or prohibited, it allows for at least some practical suggestions. In particular, I will argue that, under certain conditions, surrogacy is tenable within familial or other significant relationships, and I will stress the necessity of acknowledging the new relationships and moral commitments that result from this practice. (shrink)

This paper will explore some moral and conceptual aspects of the practice of surrogate motherhood. Although I put forward a number of criticisms of existing ideas about this subject, I do not claim to offer a fully developed position. Instead what I have tried to do is to call into question what seem to be some generally accepted assumptions about surrogate motherhood, and to lend plausibility to my view that surrogate motherhood may be morally troubling for reasons not always fully (...) recognized by other writers on this issue. These reasons go beyond the fairly obvious consequentialist concerns about its effects on the persons - particularly the child — involved. A concern for the well being of a child produced by a surrogate is, I believe, entirely justified, but my focus in this paper will be upon the surrogate mother herself. (shrink)