The Pros And Cons Of In Vitro Fertilization

Scientific advancement is accelerating but current laws and regulations fail to keep up with its progress. This problem leads to several ethical and legal dilemmas in various fields of biology. This problem is especially prominent in embryology. Laboratories focusing on in vitro fertilization have been growing embryos and then implanting them on the seventh day (Hyun et. al 169). Due to recent advances, research labs are currently able to grow embryos in vitro up to 14 days (Hyun et. al 169). Current policies and laws around the world are preventing scientist from continuing their work past 14 days. The Ethics Advisory Board of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare first proposed this rule in 1979. The 14-day rule is a regulatory line that limits in vitro human embryo research (Hyun et. al 170). This regulation prevents labs from allowing the embryo to survive and keep growing after 14 days. The line is drawn at 14 days because it stops growth before the primitive streak appears. In other words, it marks the beginning of gastrulation in humans (Reardon 19). The

It is critical to understand there are several disadvantages to allowing the current regulation to change. The first issue with extending the time frame of in vitro embryo research is deciding what the next time frame limit should be. There is a moral issue in deciding a new time frame. An important argument to consider is growing an embryo for an extended period could cause the embryo undue distress. Other groups are against embryo research because they believe life starts at the moment of conception, therefore vitro embryo research should be stopped completely. No matter what is decided in the future the most important factor to ensure the success of the future law is to guarantee that the new policy has a clear and legally enforced stopping point for research (Hyun et. al