WOMEN AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

Today, women are faced with a rapidly expanding array of reproductive technologies. Developed by private biotechnology companies and marketed to fertility clinics, these new options have been presented to women as an issue of “choice”—supposedly providing them greater control over the process and outcome of their pregnancies.

The Council for Responsible Genetics unequivocally supports a woman's right to make her own reproductive decisions. However, we oppose the utilization of human eggs and embryos for experimental manipulations and as items of commerce because of the potential for eugenic applications and health risks to women and their offspring.

The realm of assisted reproduction has become a multi-billion dollar industry, visible in the increasing availability of vitro fertilization, prenatal genetic diagnosis, and chemical and chromosomal testing of the fetus. So far, these experimental procedures have not been closely regulated.

Part of this is because the reach of federal oversight extends exclusively to publicly- funded research, leaving private sector activity largely unregulated. Many are resistant to any regulations over the fertility industry due to the continuing political residue of the abortion debate. Women in the United States fought hard to have courts recognize a women’s right to choose abortion, and are wary of opening the door to government regulation of anything to do with women’s eggs, embryos or fetuses. The word “choice” has powerful connotations and women’s groups themselves are not eager to restrict its power. The industry is aware of this and has capitalized on the situation by supposedly offering the new genetic technologies as “choices.”

The unique role of women in reproduction puts them on the front line of bio-technological experimentation, and as such, women have the potential to play a leading role in determining the direction and scope of these developments. CRG works, in partnership with a number of women’s health groups, to reshape the discussion about genetic technologies in reproduction and to equip women with the information necessary to lead the process. Our goal is to shift debates over genetic technologies away from abortion politics and into more effective and productive discussions about the integrity of reproduction and the control of women’s bodies. Through education, networking, outreach, and activism women can direct their own reproductive futures.

Background Materials

Breast Cancer Myths and Facts (also available in .pdf format)

Logics of Heredity by Kelly Happe, GeneWatch, January 2006

Egg Donation Dangers by Judy Norsigian, GeneWatch, September 2005

Can Genetics Provide Better Treatment for Breast Cancer? by Sujatha Byravan, GeneWatch, January 2003

Canada's Bill C-56: Half Full or Half Empty? by Abby Lippman, GeneWatch, September 2002

What Human Genetic Modification Means for Women By Judith Levine, WorldWatch, July 2002

Should We Expand Prenatal Screening? (English version) / Doit-on étendre le diagnostic prénatal? (French version) by Abby Lippman, L'observatoire Génétique, April 2002

Where is Women's Health in the Debate About Embryo Research? by Ruth Hubbard, GeneWatch, March 2002

Standing at the Crossroads of Genetic Testing: New Eugenics, Disability Conciousness, and Women's Work by Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsberg, GeneWatch, January 2002

Human Germline Engineering and Cloning as Women's Issues by Marcy Darnovsky, GeneWatch, July 2001

Childbearing in the Age of Biotechnology by Ruth Hubbard, GeneWatch, July 2001

Eugenics, Reproductive Technologies, and "Choice" by Ruth Hubbard, GeneWatch, January 2001

Resources

Boston Women's Health Book Collective

Center for Genetics and Society