In Vitro Fertilisation in the 1990s : Towards a Medical, Social and Ethical Evaluation

Published in 1998, this book is a collected volume of papers from the first conference of the European Network for Biomedical ethics. The main subject of this conference is the ethical assessment of IVF in view of its concrete application as an infertility treatment and the consideration of possible alternatives for use. Twenty years after the introduction and the establishment of this therapy a more concrete evaluation of its medical indications, social conditions and consequences, the psychological consequences for the women involved and the parent-child relationship becomes possible. The legal and ethical evaluation of the reproduction technology as regards for example the legal and moral status of supernumery embyos in cryo-conservation has also to be considered in a European perspective. The ethical evaluation concentrates today on the new evolution that IVF technology takes in relation to the extension of diagnostics possibilities due to genetic research. Little work has been done on the connection between IVF and genetic diagnostics and therapy, so the medical and ethical evaluation of the connecting lines are also included in the book.