Harvesting Dead Girl’s Eggs, Essay Example

The article Harvesting Dead Girl’s Eggs Raises Ethical Issues by Mikaela Conley (Conley) reminds us there are several ethical issues that arise from harvesting a dead female’s eggs. The first ethical issue, as Rosamond Rhodes of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine reminds us, is whether it is right to bring a life into the world when one is already aware that mother won’t be around to raise the child. Similarly, one also ask whether it is ethical for the society to create more lives when it is already doing an inadequate job of providing food and security to every child that already lives. The third ethical issue concerns gender equality. Since laws already allow sperm to be collected from men that have died, would the society be engaging in gender discrimination if it doesn’t allow eggs to be collected from dead women?

The ethical issue also arises whether family members can make decisions on behalf of the dead female members of their family. And if family members do have a right to make decisions on behalf of the dead family members, is this right absolute or depends upon certain conditions such as a written directive in the will or an oral consent by the dead woman during her life. The article also raises the issue as to how the child’s guardians would be decided if more than one family member lay claim to the child such as both parents and siblings.

There are different stakeholders as far as the issue of harvesting dead women’s eggs is concerned. The most important stakeholder may be the women whose eggs are harvested even though such individuals are not alive to be impacted by the outcome. The second stakeholders are the family members because a child will become part of the family. The medical community is also a stakeholder because the medical profession exists to advance the overall well-being of the society and like any other profession, medical science is also governed by certain professional ethical codes. The government is a stakeholder because in essence the child would be an orphan and the government will have an obligation to provide economic and health security to the child if he is neglected by his caretakers. The society is a stakeholder because it has an obligation to provide minimum safety net to its members, especially the most vulnerable groups such as orphans.

A patient consent could be defined as obtaining permission from the patient before performing a medical procedure. A patient consent has been established in this case because the article mentions family was granted the request by the court only after it had proven Chen wanted to have children (Conley). There are several ways the family could have established the patient consent in this case. One way may be to demonstrate through the deceased person’s written will that she wanted children. Statements under oath from several close friends and other acquaintances of the deceased person could also help establish the deceased person desired children.

If I had the final decision in this case, I would only allow it if Chen explicitly gave the permission in her will to have her eggs harvested should she die prematurely. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether Chen wanted to have children or not but whether she expressly gave the permission or not? I am aware of the fact this position may come across as an example of gender discrimination unless sperm from dead men is only collected if they had given prior consent before their deaths. I believe wishes are not the same as consent and from the article, it is reasonable to assume Chen’s wish was to have children during her lifetime rather than after her death.

Work Cited

Conley, Mikaela. Harvesting Dead Girl’s Eggs Raises Ethical Issues. 11 August 2011. 25 October 2013 <http://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/ethics/28009>.