the Electric Monk

A couple would like to have children but they have a problem. In spite of many rounds of in vitro fertilization, they have been unable to conceive. They have been working with a particular ART clinic for 10 years now, and both the couple and the clinic are in a sticky situation. The mother and father are now in their 50’s and 60’s, respectively, and are determined to bear a child through the use of a donor egg and gestational surrogacy:  another woman will give birth to their child. However, the clinic has a policy to not perform ART procedures in cases where the mother is of advanced maternal age, 50 years old being the cutoff. Is it right for the clinic to deny the couple on this basis?

The theme of the 2009 National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference is “New Technology, New Ideas, New Challenges.”  The dilemma faced by the clinic is one of those new challenges. Dr. Lisa Lehmann, Director of the Center for Bioethics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, presented this story during her seminar on “Ethical Challenges of Technology in Clinical Practice.” She had planned to discuss two other issues, but the seminar participants became engrossed in the dilemma of the older couple.

What if it was your decision whether or not to allow the clinic to help the older couple conceive through gestational surrogacy? Would you deny them the child for which they’ve waited so long? (Be careful, for if you deem people unfit to have a baby due to advanced age, why stop there?)
–Richard Blissett