74. The Ethics of Assisted Reproductive Technology │ Jennifer Lahl

Jennifer Lahl, author, documentarian, and founder and president of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network returns to the podcast today! Jennifer has been fighting assisted reproductive technology for 20 years. Her interest was peaked when her college-aged daughters were targeted for egg selling. It was during the height of the stem cell research craze, and she realized that this profit-driven medical research was being built on the backs of vulnerable young women. Her first film, Eggsploitation earned her the wrath of Big Fertility then, but they’ve hardly celebrated her work since. In her most recent article she asks, “Who Owns the Human Body?” examining the ethical implications of using a brain dead woman’s body as a surrogate. If a woman has agreed to be an organ donor, does it follow that her body could be kept on life support in a vegetative state in order to gestate a child for an infertile couple? What about the wellbeing of the fetus, which will grow surrounded by the sound of beeping monitors instead of the sound of its mother’s voice?

Assisted reproductive technology comes with many ethical pitfalls, and we’ll explore these, as well as the connection to gender ideology in the sterilization of minors. Learn more from Jennifer at the upcoming event It's Bigger Than Texas panel on April 20 in Austin, hosted by Partners for Ethical Care. Jennifer's latest film The Detransition Diaries will be screened the next day. Did I mention I'll be moderating the panel?! It's going to be such an awesome fews days you won't want to miss!

Take Jennifer's Class "The Medical and Legal Ethics of IVF, Surrogacy, and Other Commonly Used Assisted Reproductive Technology"

Find all of Jennifer's Films at Center for Bioethics & Culture

Read 'Making Babies, No Parents Needed'

Read 'Who Owns the Human Body?'

Ohio Clinic Uterine Transplants

Japanese man gains custody of 13 surrogate children

Support the Whose Body Is It Podcast⁠

⁠Shop Activist Stickers⁠

⁠Whose Body Is It Website⁠

⁠Time by ASHUTOSH⁠ ⁠Music promoted by Free Stock Music⁠ ⁠Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License