How Safe Is Safe Enough?

Obligations to the Children of Reproductive Technology

Philip G. Peters, Jr.

This book offers a roadmap for determining when and how to regulate risky reproductive technologies on behalf of future children. It starts by explaining our intuitive, but paradoxical, belief that reproductive choices can be both life-giving and harmful. Next, it recommends a case-by-case method for reconciling the interests of future children with the reproductive liberty of prospective parents. Finally, it applies this framework to four past and future medical interventions, including cloning and genetic engineering. Drawing lessons from these case studies, it criticizes the current lack of regulatory oversight.

How Safe Is Safe Enough?

Obligations to the Children of Reproductive Technology

Philip G. Peters, Jr.

Description

This book offers a comprehensive roadmap for determining when and how to regulate risky reproductive technologies on behalf of future children. First, it provides three benchmarks for determining whether a reproductive practice is harmful to the children it produces. This framework synthesizes and extends past efforts to make sense of our intuitive, but paradoxical, belief that reproductive choices can be both life-giving and harmful. Next, it recommends a process for reconciling the interests of future children with the reproductive liberty of prospective parents. The author rejects a blanket preference for either parental autonomy or child welfare and proposes instead a case-by-case inquiry that takes into account the nature and magnitude of the proposed restrictions on procreative liberty, the risk of harm to future children, and the context in which the issue arises. Finally, he applies this framework to four past and future medical treatments with above average risk, including cloning and genetic engineering. Drawing lessons from these case studies, Peters criticizes the current lack of regulatory oversight and recommends both more extensive pre-market testing and closer post-market monitoring of new reproductive technologies. His moderate, pragmatic approach will be widely appreciated.

How Safe Is Safe Enough?

Obligations to the Children of Reproductive Technology

Philip G. Peters, Jr.

1. Introduction to the Debate Over Risky Technologies
Part I: THE INTERESTS OF FUTURE CHILDREN
2. Future People Matter
3. Three Ways in Which Reproductive Conduct Can Cause Harm
4. The Duty to Use the Safest Procreative Method Available
5. Treatments Too Dangerous to Use Even as a Last Resort
6. Treatments That Endanger Embryos
7. Synthesis
PART II: RECONCILING CONFLICTING INTERESTS
8. Constructing a Regulatory Framework that Respects Parental Liberty
9. An Introduction to Constitutional Limits on the Regulation of Reproduction
10. Substantive Due Process Doctrine
11. A Critique of the "Deeply Rooted" Test
12. The Constitutional Stature of Reproductive Technologies
13. The State's Interest in Protecting Future Children
PART III: APPLYING THE FRAMEWORK
14. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
15. Multiple Pregnancy
16. Cloning
17. Germ-line Genetic Engineering
18. Conclusion

How Safe Is Safe Enough?

Obligations to the Children of Reproductive Technology

Philip G. Peters, Jr.

Reviews and Awards

"This is an important book because it emphasizes that regulation and laws are necessary with regard to asisted reproductive technology. The book strongly argues that legislation and regulation are essential if the powerful tool of reproductive technology is to benefit all of humanity in a safe and responsible fashion. Peter's take-home message is this: when scientific advances outstrip moral convictions (even among some practitioners), proactive legislation is necessary for the protection of all parties. In making its arguments, this book subtly erases the line between law and ethics." --New England Journal of Medicine