New Report on Regulating Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Posted by Osagie Obasogie July 24, 2009
Biopolitical Times
The Octomom saga earlier this year raised a number of questions concerning whether government should regulate assisted reproductive technologies and, moreover, whether such regulation would be constitutional.  Michelle Meyer, a Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, tackles this question in a new report entitled States’ Regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technologies. The abstract is below, and the report can be found here.
This paper addresses the extent to which the rights of privacy and reproductive liberty protected by the United States Constitution prevent states from regulating assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). It concludes that under the best interpretation of the Supreme Court’s existing case law, states have ample room to regulate individuals’ decisions to procreate, including decisions to use ARTs. States, pursuant to their police powers, may regulate ARTs in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. However, courts will strictly scrutinize any regulation of procreation that distinguishes socially disfavored groups for different treatment. Similarly, even where a regulation would apply equally to all citizens, it must serve a legitimate governmental interest, rather than merely reflect “outmoded taboos.”