Bioethics – Page 7 – Family Council

Bill Filed to Prohibit Fraudulent Fertility Treatment

Mar 4, 2021Jerry CoxBioethics, Legislation, LegislatureArkansas Legislature, Artificial Reproductive Technology

On Thursday Sen. Charles Beckham (R – McNeil) and Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R – Paragould) filed S.B. 474.

This good bill prohibits fraud and abuse in fertility treatments.

Right now Arkansas law contains very few provisions to prevent someone from conducting fertility treatments that are fraudulent or abusive.

S.B. 474 changes that by making it a crime for a person or healthcare provider to use unauthorized human reproductive material in a fertility treatment. This prevents reproductive material from another person from being used without appropriate consent.

The bill also makes it a crime for individuals who perform fertility treatments to misrepresent the identity of the person who has donated the reproductive material for the treatment or to misrepresent the quality of the material or the treatment procedure.

This helps address situations in which a person or company who does fertility treatments lies about the donor or secretly uses material or treatment procedures that probably will not work.

S.B. 474 also makes it possible for a person who engages in fraudulent fertility treatments to be sued.

This bill will make much-needed improvements to Arkansas’ laws governing fertility treatments and protect Arkansans from fraudulent or abusive conduct.

Read The Bill Here.

Bill Filed to Restrict Buying and Selling of Human Eggs in Arkansas

Feb 9, 2021Jerry CoxBioethicsBioethics, Human Egg Harvesting

On Monday Rep. Cindy Crawford (R – Fort Smith) filed H.B. 1441 to address commercial egg harvesting in Arkansas.

This good bill restricts the buying and selling of human eggs.

Currently, Arkansas law contains no specific protections for egg donors.

State law does not prohibit companies from coercing young women to sell their eggs or paying large sums of money to harvest unfertilized human eggs.

State law does not ensure women are informed of the health risks associated with egg harvesting.

H.B. 1441 addresses these problems.

The bill prohibits companies and individuals from paying women for their eggs, but it permits altruistic egg donations.

It prohibits companies and individuals from advertising compensation for human eggs to prospective egg providers.

It requires human eggs to be harvested by a physician in a hospital, clinic, or other medical facility that meets Arkansas Department of Health licensing standards.

Egg harvesting requires hormone treatments that carry serious health risks. H.B. 1441 requires individuals or companies that harvest eggs to give the woman important information regarding the procedure, including a summary of drug or hormone treatments involved.

You can read the bill here.

From Abortion to Assisted Suicide to Infanticide

Aug 17, 2020John StonestreetAbortion, Bioethics, Euthanasia and Assisted SuicideAbortion, Bioethics, Euthanasia, Infanticide, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

According to a recent survey, an astounding majority of Belgian doctors favor “after-birth abortion” for kids born with disability. In plain English, that would be called “infanticide.”

When asked whether it is morally permissible to “administer drugs” to end the life of a baby born with a “serious (but non-lethal) neonatal condition,” 94% of Belgian doctors surveyed said “yes.”

While the survey didn’t define “non-lethal condition,” it’s already permissible in Britain to abort babies with Down Syndrome, cleft lip, or club foot.

To be clear, we are not talking about Nazi doctors, or North Korea or Chinese party officials. Belgium is a Western, highly educated, democratic, modern nation which, not not coincidentally, has the world’s most liberal assisted suicide laws.

Certain ideas make other ideas thinkable. It’s how the unimaginable become acceptable. The slope from abortion to infanticide by way of doctor-assisted-suicide is a slippery one indeed.