Birth Rights and Wrongs : How Medicine and Technology Are Remaking Reproduction and the Law

Millions of Americans rely on the likes of birth control, IVF, and genetic testing to make plans as intimate and farreaching as any over a lifetime. This is no less than the medicine of miracles. It fills empty cradles, frees families from terrible disease, and empowers them to fashion their lives on their own terms. But accidents happen. Pharmacists mix up pills. Lab techs misread tests. Obstetricians tell women their healthy fetuses would be stillborn. Political and economic forces conspire against regulation. And judges throw up their hands when professionals foist parenthood on people who didn't want it, or childlessness on those who did. Failed abortions, switched donors, and lost embryos may be first-world problems. But these aren't innocent lapses or harmless errors. They're wrongs in need of rights. This book lifts the curtain on reproductive negligence, gives voice to the lives it upends, and vindicates the interests that advances in medicine and technology bring to full expression. It charts the legal universe of errors that: (1) deprive pregnancy or parenthood of people who set out to pursue them; (2) impose pregnancy or parenthood on those who tried to avoid these roles; or (3) confound efforts to have a child with or without certain genetic traits. This novel architecture forces citizens and courts to rethink the reproductive controversies of our time, and equips us to meet the new challenges-from womb transplants to gene editing-that lie just over the horizon.;Introduction -- Basic civil rights -- Missing protections -- Litigation's limits -- Elusive injuries -- Courthouse claims -- Damage awards -- Procreation deprived -- Procreation imposed -- Procreation confounded -- Fraught remedies -- Conclusion Today, tens of millions of Americans rely on reproductive advances to help them carry out decisions more personal and far-reaching than almost any other they will ever make: They use birth control or abortion to delay or avoid having children; surrogacy or tissue donation to start or grow a family; and genetic diagnosis or embryo selection to have offspring who survive and flourish. This is no less than the medicine of miracles: It fills empty cradles; frees families from debilitating disease; and empowers them to plan a life that doesn’t include parenthood. But accidents happen: Embryologists miss ailments; egg vendors switch donors; obstetricians tell pregnant women their healthy fetuses will be stillborn. The aftermaths can last a lifetime, yet political and economic forces conspire against regulation to prevent negligence from happening in the first place. After the fact, social stigma and lawyers’ fees stave off lawsuits, and legal relief is a long shot: Judges and juries are reluctant to designate reproductive losses as worthy of redress when mix-ups foist parenthood on patients who didn’t want it, or childlessness on those who did. Some courts insist that babies are blessings, planned or not; others shrug over the fact that infertile couples weren’t assured offspring anyway. The result is a society that lets badly behaving specialists off the hook and leaves broken victims to pick up the pieces. Failed abortions, switched donors, and lost embryos may be First World problems—but these aren’t innocent lapses or harmless errors: They’re wrongs in need of rights. Millions of Americans rely on the likes of birth control, IVF, and genetic testing to make plans as intimate and farreaching as any over a lifetime. This is no less than the medicine of miracles. It fills empty cradles, frees families from terrible disease, and empowers them to fashion their lives on their own terms. But accidents happen.0Pharmacists mix up pills. Lab techs misread tests. Obstetricians tell women their healthy fetuses would be stillborn. Political and economic forces conspire against regulation. And judges throw up their hands when professionals foist parenthood on people who didn't want it, or childlessness on those who did. Failed abortions, switched donors, and lost embryos may be first-world problems. But these aren't innocent lapses or harmless errors. They're wrongs in need of rights.0This book lifts the curtain on reproductive negligence, gives voice to the lives it upends, and vindicates the interests that advances in medicine and technology bring to full expression. It charts the legal universe of errors that: (1) deprive pregnancy or parenthood of people who set out to pursue them; (2) impose pregnancy or parenthood on those who tried to avoid these roles; or (3) confound efforts to have a child with or without certain genetic traits.0This novel architecture forces citizens and courts to rethink the reproductive controversies of our time, and equips us to meet the new challenges-from womb transplants to gene editing-that lie just over the horizon Today, tens of millions of Americans rely on reproductive advances to help them carry out decisions more personal & far-reaching than almost any other they will ever make: They use birth control or abortion to delay or avoid having children; surrogacy or tissue donation to start or grow a family; & genetic diagnosis or embryo selection to have offspring who survive & flourish. This is no less than the medicine of miracles: It fills empty cradles; frees families from disease; & empowers them to plan a life that doesn't include parenthood. But accidents happen: Embryologists miss ailments; egg vendors switch donors; obstetricians tell pregnant women their healthy fetuses will be stillborn. The aftermaths can last a lifetime, yet political & economic forces conspire against regulation to prevent negligence from happening in the first place. This text examines this important topic "This book lifts the curtain on reproductive negligence, gives voice to the lives it upends, and vindicates the interests that advances in medicine and technology bring to full expression. It charts the legal universe of errors that: (1) deprive pregnancy or parenthood of people who set out to pursue them; (2) impose pregnancy or parenthood on those who tried to avoid these roles; or (3) confound efforts to have a child with or without certain genetic traits. This novel architecture forces citizens and courts to rethink the reproductive controversies of our time, and equips us to meet the new challenges - from womb transplants to gene editing - that lie just over the horizon."--Dust jacket