P6 and D2 Human Inheritance

Ethical dilemmas are constantly confronting healthcare professionals, which is difficult to deal with as there is no correct solution. These are also known as moral dilemmas as they are situations where there is more than two choices to make and none of the choices is certain to work and can cause complications. An example of this would be ‘You are a patient and are too sick to speak for yourself. You are concerned about who will make medical decisions on your behalf, and whether your wishes will be followed. You wonder, "What if they disagree about what I would want, or what would be best for me?"’. Another example of this would be with the economic downturn that you may not be able to afford the funds for food and need to feed your family but the only way in doing this is to steal or let your family starve. These dilemmas are impossible because each person thinks differently and has a different feeling towards it.

There are ethical dilemmas surrounding IVF and infertility. Infertility is a genetic problem that affects women; it is not the woman’s fault. With IVF the NHS only gives each woman one free cycle and after that she has to fund it herself. An ethical dilemma with IVF is the possible wrong that is done to the infertile couple or the expected child by the physician. The success of IVF depends on the number of embryos transferred to the woman’s uterus. Because the chance of survival of an embryo in IVF is small the more transfers made the greater the chance of the woman becoming pregnant, it also increases the risk of multiple pregnancies. IVF is not allowed by the Catholic Church because it separates the unitive and the procreative aspects of marriage. To separate the unitive and the procreative aspects of marriage is a mortal sin. In addition the sperm donor commits a mortal sin in order to harvest the sperm which is needed for IVF. Although one human life may be created through the IVF technique, many surplus foetuses, (unborn babies),