Costa Rican police have arrested a doctor for organ trafficking. Dr Francisco Jose Mora, a prominent nephrologist, is allegedly the key figure in a large-scale transnational racket, linked to Israel and Eastern Europe. According to the Mexican newspaper El Universal, two Israelis had paid a Costa Rican and a Nicaraguan US$6,000 to obtain two kidneys that were transplanted in a Costa Rican private clinic. The newspaper reported that a woman donor had died on her way back from Israel after a transplant. The arrests shines a light on the dark side of the Costa Rica’s booming medical tourism industry which it is known for world wide. Transplant tourism is an elegant disguise for what is really the illicit trafficking of organs. http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10567]]>
Ethical Issues
Stem Cells and Cloning
Cloning is a method of reproduction used to copy a cell or an individual from their nuclear DNA. Except when there are errors or mutations during copying, a clone is, to a large extent, genetically identical to the original: it has the same DNA.
In April 2003, South Africa’s first cloned animal, a calf, was born. Scientists from South Africa collaborated with scientists from Denmark to make the event possible. At present, the survival rate of cloned animals is lower than their normal counterparts, but the technology is improving. The prevailing ethical questions concerning cloning are: does man have the right to use scientific technology to create life? And what right does a human have to clone another human?
Morally we oppose human cloning
At Doctors for Life (DFL), we believe that human life is sacred. Each individual is made by God in His image preferably by the union of genetic material from a husband and wife. We believe that the family is the basic social unit designed by God to receive and nurture new human life. Morally, we oppose human cloning. First and foremost, the development of this technology will require the deliberate sacrifice of human embryos, a deliberate act of murder of a human life that began at conception. Any cell in that embryo contains all of the information needed for a complete human life. Additionally, we believe that God’s endows an eternal soul in each life that He creates. Furthermore, cloning may deviate from the wisdom of God’s design for human genetic diversity. Scientifically, we oppose human cloning based on the potential for additive mutations, transmission of mitochondrial diseases, and negative effects from ageing genetic material. From society’s viewpoint, we oppose human cloning based upon the issues of parentage, lineage, family structure and the uniqueness of the individual. We affirm the need for continued medical, scientific and moral scrutiny as research on animal cloning proceeds and proposals for the application of this technology to humans are advanced. We at DFL believe that only God can and should create life. It is our opinion that the practice of cloning is man’s attempt to play God. Creating artificial life interferes with God’s divine plan for creation. DFL opposes all forms of cloning and will continue to work through legal and governmental channels to bring it to an end.]]>Medical Ethics
The traditional family unit based on a heterosexual marriage forms the building block upon which the overall structure of a successful society is derived. Consequently, sexual reproduction is not just a physical act, but one with consequences with immense power to exert an effect on every aspect of society.
Technologies that are used to assist the process of reproduction need to have a solid moral foundation and framework with clearly defined limitations on the techniques employed. The goal of the moral framework employed should be based on the preservation of the family unit.
Based on these points, the fusion of the egg with the sperm for the purposes of reproduction should be limited to married couples. This will ensure that the resulting embryo maintains its biological and social integrity as part of its family unit.
A lack of an ethical framework for the use of reproductive technologies such as egg and sperm donations causes arbitrary use leading inevitably to abuse. For example, fertility clinics in Cape Town are currently running advertisements for couples in the US and the UK to come to South Africa for inexpensive fertility services. The adverts promise multiracial egg donations as part of a “vacation package” which includes sight seeing at the popular holiday destination. Young local students are offered money in exchange for donations of their eggs. In addition to undergoing extensive medical procedures, the donors help produce children with whom they will have no emotional or familial ties.
At the end of the day, the victims are the defenseless children. Furthermore, this type of abuse as well as other irresponsible uses lacking the necessary ethical framework only serve to cause an irreversible damage to the produced child, the traditional family unit and hence all of society eventually.
The only way to ensure that this useful technology is used for the greater good of society is to protect the boundaries within which it is applied and ensure the preservation of the traditional family unit by limiting the fusion of the egg and the sperm to that of married couples only.]]>