Redefining Human Life

This book examines critical social-policy issues emerging from recent developments in human reproductive technology. Although considerable attention has been focused on the ethical dimensions of these developments, the policy dimension has largely been obscured. Dr. Blank now provides a far-ranging overview of the cumulative impact on society of a wide array of new reproductive technologies and the social patterns that accompany or precede their application. The book begins with a description of the current context of reproductive decision making. Dr. Blank demonstrates how emerging technologies are producing complex and intense social-policy concerns, then reviews in detail human reproductive technologies, and illustrates the significant consequences of technological innovations for political and legal concepts of rights and obligations. (Examples include recent cases involving torts for wrongful life.) He analyzes possible alterations in the moral and legal status of the fetus in light of apparent technological and social-policy trends and presents a paradigm of fetal rights that reflects these changes. A final case is made for a comprehensive assessment of reproductive technologies, as well as for the urgent need to refine concepts of human life that in the past have been taken for granted, but that now are being challenged.