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The Puzzle Of Ivf, Dena S. Davis
The Puzzle Of Ivf, Dena S. Davis
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
This essay seeks to address a puzzling element of the current political and legal struggles over abortion in the United States: if, as pro-life activists insist, embryos are morally equivalent to born, living persons, then why do these activists not oppose in vitro fertilization (IVF) as aggressively as they oppose abortion? IVF accounts for a significant number of destroyed embryos. Constitutionally, IVF appears to be a much more vulnerable target than abortion. And yet, legislative and political attempts to attack and restrict IVF are few, while attempts to erode women's capability to terminate pregnancies are a constant feature of our …
Stem Cells, Cloning, And Abortion: Making Careful Distinctions, Dena S. Davis
Stem Cells, Cloning, And Abortion: Making Careful Distinctions, Dena S. Davis
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
The current controversy over federal funding for research involving stem cells derived from very early embryos is situated between two other equally difficult issues: abortion and cloning. As Laurie Zoloth (2002) says, talk about stem cells is "directly proximate" to the abortion debate. Nonetheless, a settled position in favor of abortion rights does not necessarily lead to support for research that involves the death of embryos. Nor should opposition to reproductive cloning necessarily entail opposition to therapeutic cloning. There are important ways in which our attitudes toward research with embryonic stem cells ought to be entwined with our thinking about …