Horrors Of Baby Making (Consequences Of Reproductive Technology On Humanity)

• Published in: Pakistan journal of gender studies 2008-03, Vol.1 (1), p.1-9
• Main Authors: Manzoor, Asma, Ali, Saba Imran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2072-0394; 2663-8886
• DOI: 10.46568/pjgs.v1i1.251

The recent advances in the field of medical sciences have allowed the scientists to control the processes of life and death. These processes not only can prolong the human life by machines but doctors and scientists can also initiate the process of human life: artificial insemination, cloning, in vitro fertilization (IVF), cyropreservation of sperm, oocytes, embryos, embryo transfer (ET), hormone treatment, surrogacy, testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and gamete intra fallopian transfer (GIFT) are well known examples. By far the most common of these is IVF. As a result of these scientific innovation couples have become statistics and children have become scientific experiments. Technological advancement in biology not only raises the question of good or bad technology or good or bad effects of technology but it lead us to the question whether all works of science and technology are beneficial or otherwise for the humankind. Since the birth of Louis Brown in 1978 – the period related to the first ‘test tube baby’ in the UK, many ethical issues regarding reproductive technologies (RT) and their potential impacts on humanity at large have been raised. In the light of extraordinary medical and ethical consequences that the RT has placed on humanity in the developed world, a discussion has been made in the paper to identify and describe the reproductive technology: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). This paper also explores the difficulties that Muslim countries like Pakistan could face when actual progression of reproductive technologies gets under way.