The Annual Bioethics Conference at Harvard Medical School is a two day, single track conference that facilitates conversations among experts about emerging ethical issues. The topic for 2017 was The Ethics of “Making Babies”.   The use of assisted reproductive technologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical procedures in the United States. In a field marked by rapid technological innovation, policy makers, physician-scientists, and those seeking infertility treatment must navigate questions related to conception in a landscape of shifting cultural norms and ideological divisions.

The Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics’ Annual Bioethics Conference convened experts from education, medicine, law and other key stakeholders to frame and discuss the ethical implications of both current and developing reproductive technologies.

Presentation topics included:

• Access to Reproductive Technology
• Criminalization of Reproductive Choice
• Freezing Eggs and Creating Patients: Reproductive Autonomy
• The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction
• Sex Selection as a Gateway to Gene Editing
• Egg Donation and Payments
• Uterine Transplants
• Gene Editing

See the conference agenda for details.

There was a required fee for meals and refreshments expenses.

The Harvard Annual Bioethics ConferenceThe Ethics of “Making Babies,”  is co-sponsored by the Hastings Center, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund.