Access to In Vitro Fertilization Deserves Increased Regulation in the United States

Abstract

In the United States, it is generally accepted that people have the right to reproduce without government interference or regulation. The autonomy of the individual is held in high regard. Before the advent of assisted reproductive technology, heterosexual, monogamous relationships were the legally accepted standard means of human reproduction. In vitro fertilization and other forms of assisted reproductive technology have provided society with a wide array of reproductive possibilities that challenge moral and legal conventions regarding the structure of society and the concept of what constitutes the family unit. At the same time, access to health care is increasingly being recognized as a basic human right. If society is required to accept assisted reproduction as a basic right, it has the right to regulate access for its physical, social, and economic well being.