Gamete Provision And Moral Responsibility, Reuven A. Brandt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

The use of third-party gametes in reproductive procedures has raised ethical questions about what responsibilities, if any, the providers of these gametes have towards the children they help to create. Much of this debate has focused on the conditions under which individuals acquire parental responsibilities, and the manner in which these responsibilities can be ethically discharged. Rather than taking parenthood as a starting point, however I focus on the conditions under which care-taking responsibilities arise more generally. I defend the thesis that gamete providers acquire substantial inalienable care-taking responsibilities towards their biological offspring, but that these responsibilities do not …