Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first Century

CHAPTER 4. TECHNOLOGY AND THE WOMB

CHAPTER 4 TECHNOLOGY AND THE WOMB In Part One we sought to present the basic tenets of the Hindu ethical system. In Part Two we attempt to clarify the implications of these fundamental ethical principles for select moral issues that raise new challenges in medical contexts. In 1987 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency that is responsible for monitoring orthodoxy, issued a forty-page document entitled Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day. Though the document is not published as an infallible pronouncement , it does carry definitive authority to this day. Its purpose is to denounce virtually all of the rapidly spreading methods of artificial procreation , deeming them to be violations of both the rights of humans and the laws of God. At a press conference in Rome, head of the congregation, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, said: “What is technologically possible is not also morally admissible.”1 The Instruction sternly admonishes that a child must never be desired or conceived as the “product of an intervention of medical or biological techniques”—that would be tantamount to reducing the child to “an object of scientific technology.” In addition to its insistence that Catholics submit to its teachings, the document also calls upon governments to enact legislation prohibiting a number of the controversial reproductive techniques. As a result the Instruction has provoked widespread debate not only on the ethics of the reproductive techniques it discusses but on the propriety of the Vatican’s attempt to influence public policy on a medical issue, particularly in pluralistic societies. The major practices condemned are: 1. Artificial Insemination 2. In Vitro Fertilization Crawford: Hindu Bioethics page 115 Crawford 113-198-226 8/21/03 11:36 AM Page 115 3. Surrogate Motherhood 4. Embryo Experiments What is the position of Hindu bioethics in respect to these methods of conception, which remain controversial issues in the West? We focus on methods 2 and 3. IN VITRO FERTILIZATION AND EMBRYO TRANSFER (IVF-ET) The procedure in contention is for a woman to undergo hormone treatment to stimulate the follicles to produce eggs. Once the follicles have matured, the physician removes some eggs through the surgical procedure of laparoscopy. The eggs are deposited in a culture medium in a petri dish. Sperms are then added to the eggs for fertilization. After a couple of days, the fertilized embryos are transferred to the woman’s womb. Following some bed rest, the embryos implant in the uterus, and from that point onwards, the normal course of pregnancy proceeds. Hindu bioethics would not find difficulty with IVF-ET in respect to the harm/benefit ratio. To be sure, one must consider the possible harm attendant upon the hormone therapy; the surgical laparoscopy under general anesthesia; the risks incurred by the extra-corporeal management of the egg, sperm, and embryo; the limited rate of success; and the high emotional and financial costs; but all of this must be measured against the wishes and rights of the couple. In addition to the basic human urge to have one’s own biological offspring, Hindus are guided by religion in respect to progeny. The Law Books state: “To be mothers were women created, and to be fathers men; religious rites, therefore are ordained in the Veda to be performed (by the husband) together with the wife.”2 Male progeny was especially prized. The epics agree with the rest of the literature: “Let a man wed and beget sons, for in them there is a profit greater than any other profit.” The sonless man was born to no end, and he who does not propagate himself is godless (adharmika); for to carry on the blood is the highest duty and virtue.3 It is therefore logical that in the four stages of life, that of the householder is ranked the highest. In ordinary cases, Hindu bioethics would want to limit IVF-ET to married couples, using their own gametes in order to maximize the chance of both physical and emotional success for the child. However, Crawford: Hindu Bioethics page 116 116 The Beginning and End of Life Crawford 113-198-226 8/21/03 11:36 AM Page 116 there is provision in the Hindu tradition for use of donor sperm. One precedent for this exigency is...