Reproductive technology encompasses a range of techniques used to overcome infertility, increase fertility, influence or choose the genetic characteristics of offspring, or alter the characteristics of a population. Each type of reproductive technology brings with it a range of ethical issues. With the accelerated pace of progress in modern medical technology, these issues have been brought squarely into the public arena, where they continue to provoke controversies involving the boundaries of government control, private choice, religious belief, and parental wishes.

Recoiling from Eugenics

Humans' ability to selectively breed desired characteristics into domestic animals and plants, combined with pride and concern for family and for national and ethnic heritage, has led historically to multiple suggestions and experiments aimed at "improving" the human race. These ideas gave rise to the eugenics movements in Great Britain and in the United States in the late nineteenth...