To say or not to say? Assisted reproductive technologies : Some challenges

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 has won the Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2006) and has been awarded the Konnex Prize: Honor Diploma in Ethics in 2006, in recognition of important figures in Humanities during the last decade in Argentina (1996-2006). 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. She was in the Steering Committee of Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) working on the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects (2002). 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 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). Presently she is working in issues related with research in developing countries and also in stem cell research, infertility and gender from a developing country perspective. In this presentation Dr. Luna discusses important ethical aspects of the disclosure of parenthood to children following assisted reproduction.  Since its inception ARTs have generated different challenges. Some examples are:  From technical ones: no physical problems to the newborns;  To societal ones: for example, until what age we should provide these technologies?  There are other challenges that have not been so widely discussed but that nonetheless are very relevant. This lecture will focuss on this concern:  Should we maintain secrecy or disclose the origin of the gametes to the offspring when these regarding disclosure or anonymity? techniques use a donor?  How should we regulate ARTs