By Elizabeth Yuko, Ph.D.
Between adoption and advancing reproductive technologies, there are ever-increasing options for individuals and families who wish to have a baby. Recent reports indicate that the high costs associated with these processes have resulted in some using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.com and GoFundMe.com to raise money for fees associated with adoption, surrogacy, and assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Indeed, certain forms of assisted reproduction raise ethical questions in and of themselves, but in this case, our concern is whether it matters how funds for these processes are raised, and who provides the funding. In other words, is utilizing a crowdfunding website an ethically acceptable way to raise funds for adoption, IVF, and surrogacy? If so, is it significant who pays for these processes? Is anything owed to the people who contribute?
Read the full article here.
Dr. Elizabeth Yuko is a bioethicist at the Center for Ethics Education at Fordham University, Editor of Ethics & Society, and coordinates the HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute.
This post originally appeared on Ethics & Society, a blog with ethical news and analysis from the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education and was reposted with permission.
