Major
Biology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2024
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Infertility, the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected intercourse, affects millions of couples. As a result, individuals often turn to assisted reproductive technology (ART) to grow their family. Despite great success, ARTs have been associated with a higher risk of birth defects compared to natural pregnancy. Furthermore, isolating the factors that contribute to this increased risk has been a challenge thus far. Our research has characterized the factors that have been identified as potential modulators and proposed critical ethical concerns related to informed consent and longitudinal care for ART infants and their families “beyond the clinic.”
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Jennifer Parks, PhD, Department of Philosophy; Dawn Franks, MAEd, PhD, Department of Biology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Beyond the Clinic: Characterizing the Long-Term Individual and Familial Implications of ART-Linked Birth Defects
Infertility, the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected intercourse, affects millions of couples. As a result, individuals often turn to assisted reproductive technology (ART) to grow their family. Despite great success, ARTs have been associated with a higher risk of birth defects compared to natural pregnancy. Furthermore, isolating the factors that contribute to this increased risk has been a challenge thus far. Our research has characterized the factors that have been identified as potential modulators and proposed critical ethical concerns related to informed consent and longitudinal care for ART infants and their families “beyond the clinic.”