Online research in philosophy

This paper explores some of the ethical (and legal) implications of artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. In both cases the emphasis is on the interests of the potential child. It concludes that in neither case is great optimism or great pessimism appropriate. About AID, much of the legal and ethical concern has been other than child-centered, and has focused mainly on the interests of parents and donors. Three aspects expecially remain troubling: donor selection, record-keeping and disclosure and the testing (...) of frozen semen. About further IVF research, approval appears justified, as long as remaining concerns about risk/safety and need are satisfied. (shrink)

This paper will begin with a brief account of the mandate and description of the Law Reform Commission of Canada and its Protection of Life Project, secondly, point to a limitation imposed upon it by the nature of health law in Canada and, thirdly propose some basic questions which such commissions have both the luxury and the duty to wrestle with and resolve. In my view it is these fundamental challenges which ought to be the major components of the standards (...) by which national commissions such as ours are judged. (shrink)