Welfare of Future Children

This open access practical guide to reproductive ethics navigates the complex subject of the policy around IVF treatment and disability screening based on the concerns around the welfare of future children. It focuses on 3 questions in order to examine these often complex philosophical issues: Should we allow prospective parents using IVF to implant an embryo with a condition considered to be a disability? Is routine screening for Down syndrome in pregnancy ethically acceptable, even if there is evidence that individuals may feel pressure to accept this screening? Are we justified in attempting to evaluate the potential parenting ability of those trying to access fertility treatment (e.g. disabled people or individuals with past criminal convictions) and prevent access in some cases? Rebecca Bennett walks the reader through different answers to these questions, exploring issues such as whether it is ever morally wrong to reproduce, whether we have a moral obligation to try and bring the best children we can into existence and how we can assess the quality of future lives.There is, of course, no consensus about what the right answers are to these questions, however answers are neede