ETHICAL ISSUES OF GAMETE DONATION: BODY COMMODIFICATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF FAMILY RELATIONS

The aim of the article is to consider practices of biotechnology that require gamete donation (cloning, human assisted reproduction technologies) and ethical and philosophical questions caused by these biotechnologies. The study is interdisciplinary and it is based on the research in philosophy, humanities, social and medical sciences. All of the sources in the study analyses gamete donation practices in different scientific fields. The study emphasizes social impact on familiar moral notions and the ability of these practices pose new ones. In the study the authors have come to conclusion that gamete donation causes new moral dilemmas and made us revisit the familiar notions of family, parental rights and obligations, family relations. At the same time gamete donation contributes to commodification of body and body parts, developing a new market where people make money. Commodification of body causes a set of ethical questions, such as permissibility of usage and exploitation of human bodies. The article describes current and possible future ethical and philosophical challenges, posed by practices of gamete donation. Many of these practices transcend familiar moral judgments and make people reconsider their attitudes toward family and family relations. Gamete donation practices are able to create new forms of family and body commodification practices.

gamete donation, body commodification, bioethics, reproductive technologies, moral dilemma