Reproductive Ethics
March 6, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Elizabeth Carr has always been a living symbol of fertility technology’s possibilities. Now she is the face of its challenges. Carr, 42 years old, is the first baby born by in vitro fertilization in the U.S. … Read More
March 6, 2024
(New York Times) – Legal experts said the bill, which Governor Kay Ivey has signaled she will sign, would be the first in the country to create a legal moat around embryos, blocking lawsuits or prosecutions if they are damaged … Read More
March 5, 2024
(STAT News) – Doctors say they are seeing more women like Ms. Parker try weight-loss medications in the hopes of having a healthy pregnancy, or of conceiving in the first place. Women with obesity are sometimes advised to lose weight … Read More
March 5, 2024
(Nature) – Cells taken from the fluid around growing fetuses have been used to make organoids, 3D bundles of cells that mimic tissue. These organoids could help researchers to understand diseases that develop in the fetus during pregnancy. The researchers … Read More
March 4, 2024
(NPR) – France’s lawmakers have approved a bill to enshrine the right to an abortion in the country’s constitution, a historic move that came in response to concerns over the rollback of abortion laws in the United States. Members of … Read More
March 4, 2024
(STAT News) – As a fetus develops, its body is bathed in amniotic fluid: a warm, salty soup of nutrients, hormones, and antibodies produced by its mother. And into that fluid, a fetus is constantly sloughing off or peeing out … Read More
March 4, 2024
(Axios) – Families considering starting IVF treatments in Alabama still face a host of unknown legal risks despite new protections Gov. Kay Ivey plans to sign into law, experts warn. Why it matters: Courts could ultimately consider new legislation, designed … Read More
March 1, 2024
(Associated Press) – The drugstore chains CVS Health and Walgreens plan to start dispensing an abortion pill in a few states within weeks. CVS Health will start filling prescriptions for mifepristone in Rhode Island and neighboring Massachusetts “in the weeks … Read More
February 29, 2024
(NBC News) – Both chambers of the Alabama Legislature passed Republican-proposed bills intended to protect in vitro fertilization on Thursday after the state Supreme Court ruled that embryos are considered children. The Alabama state House and Senate still need to … Read More
February 29, 2024
(CBS News) – Proposed “personhood” laws getting a closer look after Alabama’s IVF ruling could vastly complicate reproductive care in some states that require insurance coverage of fertility treatments and drugs, by setting up potentially clashing mandates on what to … Read More
February 28, 2024
(MedPage Today) – In the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court decision establishing that frozen embryos can be considered children, some IVF clinics in that state have paused operations — because discarding embryos is inherent to the process. There are … Read More
February 28, 2024
(Washington Post via MSN) – In an Alabama Supreme Court ruling equating IVF embryos with people, Chief Justice Tom Parker cited arguments from across the planet and the centuries, all leading to one source for the court’s judgment: “God.” In … Read More
February 28, 2024
(New York Times) – A growing share of abortions is now being administered through telemedicine, with clinicians prescribing mail-order abortion pills after online consultations, according to the first nationwide count of telehealth abortions in the U.S. medical system. At least … Read More
February 27, 2024
(Politico) – Most medical exceptions in abortion bans only allow the procedure to “save the life of the mother.” But there is a wide spectrum of health risks patients can face during pregnancy, and even those that are potentially fatal … Read More
February 27, 2024
(The Guardian) – Six midwives and three patients sued the state of Hawaii on Tuesday after the government last year prohibited birth workers without a specific midwifery license from providing maternal healthcare. The lawsuit, filed today by the Center for … Read More
February 27, 2024
(Medical Xpress) – In Western Europe, the number of children and adolescents who do not identify with their sex assessed at birth and who therefore seek help is rapidly increasing. An updated systematic review recently published in Zeitschrift für Kinder- … Read More
February 27, 2024
(Nature) – Nature spoke to the researcher who contacted Sage with concerns about the papers, as well as to reproductive-health specialists to learn about the perceived issues that triggered the papers’ retractions. They praise the retractions, but say that there … Read More
February 26, 2024
(ProPublica) – The report found that among people getting health care benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate of severe complications nearly doubled during that time, from about 93 per 10,000 hospitalizations in 2011 to just over 184 … Read More
February 26, 2024
(Washington Post) – Her case highlights a chilling reality of post-Roe America:Medical exceptions to abortion bans have not stopped doctors from turning away patients with significant pregnancy complications, often with harrowing consequences.Their stories underscore the messy collision between abortion laws … Read More
February 26, 2024
(STAT News) – The court ruled on Feb. 16 that a fertility clinic patient who accidentally destroyed other patients’ frozen embryos could be liable in a wrongful death lawsuit, writing in its opinion that “the Wrongful Death of a Minor … Read More
February 23, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The Alabama legal ruling is clearly animated by religion—there are lots of Bible quotes and references to “murder” when discussing abortion. But what hasn’t gotten as much notice is the court’s specific argument that an embryo … Read More
February 23, 2024
(New York Times) – Alabama lawmakers are considering legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, after a State Supreme Court ruling last week led some clinics to halt I.V.F. treatments and left many women in limbo. The ruling, which declared … Read More
February 23, 2024
(New York Times) – In interviews on Wednesday, a number of women in Alabama who recently underwent in vitro fertilization, or were in the middle of treatment, said that they felt abruptly stuck in limbo. Some who recently had children … Read More
February 22, 2024
(STAT News) – While embryos can be transferred without freezing, cryopreservation helps avoid transferring multiple embryos at once and allows for delayed transfer when, for instance, someone is undergoing medical treatments such as chemotherapy. This means frozen embryos, as well … Read More
February 22, 2024
(Associated Press) – Alabama’s largest hospital paused in vitro fertilization treatments Wednesday as providers and patients across the state scrambled to assess the impact of a court ruling that said frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. The University … Read More