From Laboratory to Clinic: Issues in the Oversight of Innovative Reproductive Technologies

Thursday, January 24, 2002, 1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. Central Time

William G. Shepard Room, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

Event Description

How can we develop more systematic oversight of innovative assisted reproductive technologies (ART) as they move from the laboratory to the clinic? This presentation develops the argument that although ART innovation now takes place in a private setting, it is open to procedural reform through ethics advisory boards and other mechanisms. Prof. Bonnicksen used two case studies — the creation of research embryos through cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer and ooplasmic transplantation to create a child with three genetic parents — to illustrate issues raised by efforts to make private sector innovation more open and systematic.

Speaker Biography

Andrea Bonnicksen, PhD, is professor and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University. She is a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and was named to be a member of the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Review Group, National Institutes of Health. She has published on preimplantation genetic diagnosis of human embryos, human embryo freezing, germline gene therapy, fetal egg donation, and human embryo twinning. Her most recent book is Crafting A Cloning Policy (Georgetown, 2002).