The Beginning of Human Life [Paperback]

Progress in biomedical science has called for an international discussion of the medical, ethical, and legal problems that confront physicians, medical researchers, infertile couples, pregnant women, and parents of premature or disabled infants. In addition, the unprecedented technological developments in obstetrical, perinatal, and neonatal medicine in recent years have indicated a need for an international forum for interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the definition of early human life, the neurological development of early human life, the value of early human life, the obligations for its protection and prolongation, and the limits to these obligations.Progress in biomedical science has called for an international discussion of the medical, ethical, and legal problems that confront physicians, medical researchers, infertile couples, pregnant women, and parents of premature or disabled infants. In addition, the unprecedented technological developments in obstetrical, perinatal, and neonatal medicine in recent years have indicated a need for an international forum for interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the definition of early human life, the neurological development of early human life, the value of early human life, the obligations for its protection and prolongation, and the limits to these obligations.Preface. The Beginning of Full Moral Standing; R.M. Veatch. Legal Aspects of the Beginning of Human Life; B.M. Dickens. Development of the Human Brain: The Emergence of the Neural Substrate for Pain Perception and Conscious Experience; R.O. Kuljis. The Moral Significance of Brain-Life Criteria; H.-M. Sass. Assisted Reproductive Technologies of the 1980 and 1990s: The State of the Art and a Look at the Future; R.H. Asch. Human Reproductive Technology: Why All the Moral Fuss? H.T. Engelhardt Jr. Gestational Surrogacy and the Health Care Provider: Put Part of the IVF Genie Back into the Bottle; K.H. Rothenberg. The Beginning of Human LiflC(