Reproductive Technology and Genetics: Legal and Ethical Issues: Seminar
Spring term, Block I
T 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Assistant Professor I. Glenn Cohen
2 classroom credits LAW-96715A
Should individuals be able to sell reproductive materials like sperm and ova, or reproductive services like surrogacy? Should the law require individuals diagnosed with diseases like Huntington's diseases to disclose to family members that they too are at risk for the disease? Should prenatal sex selection be a crime? Should federal funds be used for stem cell research? Should law enforcement be able to bank DNA samples collected from suspects and perpetrators? Should doctors be able to patent cell lines developed from their patients' bodies?
Since Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, and the 1978 birth of Louis Brown, the first child conceived through in vitro fertilization, pressing questions like these have propagated. In this course we will cut across doctrinal categories to examine how well the law and medical ethics have kept up, and plot directions for fruitful development.
Topics covered may include:
* Prenatal genetic screening and sex selection * Genetic enhancement * The sale of sperm and ova and access to reproductive technology * Surrogacy * Cloning * Preembryo disposition disputes * Wrongful birth, wrongful conception, and wrongful life torts * The parentage and anonymity of gamete donors.
* Imposition of criminal liability on mothers and third parties for harm to fetuses * The use of genetic information by insurers and employers * The collection of genetic information by the state and the criminal justice system * Biobanking * Chimeras (human-animal hybrids) * The stem cell controversy * The patenting of genes and their derivatives * Research ethics issues involving fetuses and embryos * Pharmacogenomics and Race
There will be no exam. Evaluation will be by written work and participation.