In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS, SOCIETAL INTERESTS, AND REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES PATRICIA BAIRD" Introduction The need to balance individual and collective interests arises in all areas of public policy. But the conflict can be especially poignant in the area of reproductive technologies because of the importance to most people's emotional lives of having children. On one hand, the interests of people who are infertile, or people at risk ofhaving children with a genetic disease, are important and deeply felt human concerns. On the other hand, any harmful effects on our society of making available services in these areas need to be weighed, and how to allocate finite collective resources in the most appropriate manner must be considered. Sometimes the view is expressed that liberal democracy differs from some other forms of government because individual rights always take precedence over the interests of the collectivity. This is not the case. Canada's constitutional history demonstrates unequivocally that in a liberal democracy , individual rights can be limited when the aim is to protect important societal interests. Indeed, framing a need or desire in the language of "rights" is not the most helpful way of approaching this issue. Rather, an outlook that recognizes that individuals are embedded in networks of relationships and are not isolated agents is better at seeking ways to accommodate diverse interests [1-3]. It requires balancing individual and collective interests to forestall, as much as possible, adversary stances. Weighing both individual and collective interests in this way may lead to more humane and caring policies in handling reproductive technologies [4]. The concept of rights has undoubted value. There are many examples of how rights can promote people's self-respect and mobilize them to remedy»University of British Columbia, #222-6174 University Blvd., Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z3, Canada.© 1997 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0031-5982/97/ 4002-0994$01 .00 440 Patricia Baird ¦ Individual Interests injustices—the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and the development of human rights instruments through bodies such as the United Nations are good examples. But it is also important to recognize that different people's rights overlap, that rights are subject to various limitations, and that rights usually come with responsibilities attached. To claim a right such as "a right to reproduce" does not by itself resolve policy issues—or resolve how to assess whether a given claim is indeed a right. Although rights are important, they can be understood only within a larger context of societal limitations and individual responsibilities. This essay will explore three examples from the field of reproductive technology that illustrate the fundamental position that policies based solely on an individual rights/interests model are inappropriate. The use ofreproductive technologies (for example, in vitro fertilization or prenatal diagnosis) may be examined from the perspective ofthe infertile individual who wants to have a child, or the individual who wants to find out certain characteristics of her fetus; or they may be examined from the perspective of the community. It is important to recognize that these two perspectives do not always coincide. Analogous to the tragedy of the commons [5], individual decisions regarding use of reproductive technology may be personally beneficial, yet have undesirable collective consequences. For example, if each couple can use technology to easily ensure that their first or only child is male, then a consequence in aggregate may be a skewed sex distribution in the population. Scientific knowledge about human reproduction can be applied in many ways that may be in the interest ofsome individuals, but which may harm other individuals or groups. Physicians, nurses, and other health care workers are socialized into professions that focus strongly on helping an individual. Therefore it is important for them to recognize that individual choices in reproduction are not isolated acts. The wider consequences need to be taken into account because we all have a stake in what kind of community we live in. We must ensure that it not be one in which the use of reproductive technologies commodifies children, commercializes the deeply human process offorming families, or exploits some women. The impact of new reproductive technologies extends well beyond the individuals directly involved in their use...

pdf

Share