Regulating the "Global Baby"
Posted by Pete Shanks August 4, 2011
Biopolitical Times
Prof. George Annas has just published an important article about regulating assisted reproduction in the New England Journal of Medicine. He considers in detail last year's Canadian Supreme Court decision about the regulation of reproductive medicine, which by the narrowest of margins assigned regulation to the provinces rather than the federal government.
Then he considers the implications of these issues — not necessarily the decision itself so much as the context surrounding it — for the U.S. and for other countries. There is an uncharted minefield of threats to human rights, which badly needs addressing. He concludes:
The “global baby” has arrived in practice, but neither legal theory nor medical ethics has kept pace with the globalization of human reproduction.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: