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Fertility preservation for children treated for cancer (2): ethics of consent for gamete storage and experimentation
R Grundya, V Larcherb, R G Gosdenc, M Hewittd, A Leipere, H A Spoudeasf, D Walkerd, W H B Wallacega Institute of Child
Health, University of Birmingham, Whittall Street, Birmingham B4
6NH, UK, b Department of General
Paediatric Medicine, The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London
E1 1BB, UK, c Department of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Division of Reproductive Biology, 687 Pine
Avenue West, Montreal, QC Canada, H3A1A1, Canada, d Queen's
Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK, e Department of
Haematology and Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond
Street, London WC1N 3JH, UK, f Department of Paediatric and Adolescent
Endocrinology and Oncology, The Middlesex Hospital, Mortimer Street,
London W1N 8AA, UK, g Department of Haematology and Oncology, Royal
Hospital for Sick Children, 17 Millerfield Place, Edinburgh E19
1LF, UK
Correspondence to: Dr Grundy r.g.grundy@bham.ac.uk
Accepted 21 November
2000
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
Introduction |
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Infertility causes significant psychosocial morbidity by reducing both personal sense of wellbeing (health) and capacity to exercise self determination over reproduction (autonomy).1 As the primary moral responsibilities of health professionals are restoration of health and respecting patients' autonomy, it follows that preserving fertility or treating infertility has sound ethical justification in adults. These arguments also apply to children. Children who develop cancer suffer misfortune; for this to be compounded by the burden of potentially treatable infertility seems doubly unjust. However, intervention to preserve fertility must have a sound evidence base as well as moral provenance. It should neither raise unrealistic expectations nor have long term adverse effects on the patient or their offspring.
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Ethics of removal, storage, and manipulation of gonadal tissues |
|---|
Preservation of fertility by assisted reproductive techniques
(ART) is not an established part of cancer treatment for prepubescent children and without relevant research to determine its efficacy and
safety it cannot be considered as such. Clinical research
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Arch. Dis. Child. 2001 85: 251.[Extract] [Full Text]
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