Ethical Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) in Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART)

Florencia Luna received an M.A. from the University of Columbia (USA) and a Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires. She directs the Program of Bioethics and is teaching bioethics at FLACSO (Latin American University of Social Sciences). She is Principal Researcher at CONICET (National Scientific and Technological Research Council). She has been the President of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) during 2003 to 2005. She is Temporary Advisor of the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1997 and is now Expert for WHO since 2009. She has been appointed to the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of Tropical Disease Research (TDR) at WHO. Beginning in 2005, she became a member or the Steering Committee of the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR). She is co- PI with Ruth Macklin of a research training grant of the Fogarty International Centre, NIH (National Institutes of Health- (US)) to train persons in ethics and research (2000-2016). She is member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondation Brocher (2014- ). She is the author of Reproducción Asistida, Género y Derechos Humanos en Latinoamérica (San José, Costa Rica, IIDH, 2008); Bioethics and Vulnerability: A Latin American View (RODOPY, Amsterdam-US, 2006); and Ensayos de bioética: reflexiones desde el Sur (Fontamara, México, 2001). She has also published articles in national and international journals as well as in edited books. She is editing Perspectivas bioeticas since 1996 (the first Argentinian journal wholly devoted to bioethics). In this presentation Dr. Luna discusses important ethical aspects of assisted reproduction.  First wave of problems:  Permissibility or not of these techniques in a general way (i.e. artificial versus natural),  Distrust/fear on the impact of science (i.e. how it will affect the future child),  Philosophical arguments (slipery slope, gender issues, resource allocation).  Second wave of problems:  Permissibility or not of each of these techniques,  Distinction between the ethical problems posed by artificial insemination (i.e.donor), in vitro fertilization (i.e. status of embryo and cripreservation) or surrogacy (i.e. social contract).