Ethical Issues in Family Planning

The introduction of “the pill” in 1960 and legalization of abortion in 1973 measurably improved the success rate and safety level of two basic family planning choices—to conceive or not and to carry through or terminate a pregnancy. Since then, in vivo fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies and growing understanding of the human genome have vastly expanded family planning choices. As this month’s contributors demonstrate, the emerging capability to control the timing, sex, and other genetic traits of one’s offspring has created tension among the reproductive desires of individuals, professional ethics, and government policies that reflect public (un)willingness to pay for various family planning services.

Volume 14, Number 2: 89-180 Full Issue PDF
  • From the Editor
    Feb 2012

    Technology, Policy, and Personal Decision Making

    Jennifer Braverman
    The opportunity to make choices about family planning has outpaced our ability to reach consensus on what constitutes the ethical use of new technology.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):91-93. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.fred1-1202.
  • Case and Commentary
    Feb 2012

    Directive Counseling about Becoming Pregnant

    Frank A. Chervenak, MD and Laurence B. McCullough, PhD
    Physicians, including obstetricians, get themselves into preventable ethical conflict very quickly when they go beyond the limits of the expertise supported by evidence-based reasoning and the scientific and clinical competence it creates.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):94-98. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.ccas1-1202.
  • Case and Commentary
    Feb 2012

    Protecting the Confidentiality of Sexually Active Adolescents

    Xiomara M. Santos, MD
    Doctors should do everything they can to protect an adolescent's confidentiality, but lying to the patient's parents is not acceptable.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):99-104. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.ccas2-1202.
  • Case and Commentary
    Feb 2012

    Sex Selection for Nonhealth-Related Reasons

    Lusine Aghajanova, MD, PhD and Cecilia T. Valdes, MD
    While sex selection of children for nonmedical reasons is not prohibited in the United States, the authors believe that sperm sorting should not be used until more safety data are available.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):105-111. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.ccas3-1202.
  • Medical Education
    Feb 2012

    Funding for Abortion Training in Ob/Gyn Residency

    Kristina Tocce, MD, MPH and Britt Severson, MPH
    A substantial proportion of patients seen by physicians have had an abortion or will have one in the future, yet acquiring the necessary skills to care for 30 percent of the female patient population has been made challenging for future physicians by a number of laws and amendments.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):112-117. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.medu1-1202.
  • Health Law
    Feb 2012

    Legislative Restrictions on Abortion

    B. Jessie Hill, JD
    More anti-abortion legislation was passed in 2011 than in any other year since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. In the first half of the year, more than 80 abortion-related restrictions were enacted across the United States.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):133-136. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.hlaw1-1202.
  • State of the Art and Science
    Feb 2012

    Male Hormonal Contraception

    Mara Y. Roth, MD
    The development of a reversible male hormonal contraceptive would offer a monumental improvement in reproductive choices for both men and women.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):126-132. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.stas1-1202.
  • Policy Forum
    Feb 2012

    The Religious Exemption to Mandated Insurance Coverage of Contraception

    Adam Sonfield, MPP
    The Department of Health and Human Service's decision to include a religious exemption to its requirement that private health plans cover contraception without patient cost-sharing raises questions about whether such an exemption appropriately balances the needs, beliefs, rights, and obligations of all affected.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):137-145. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.pfor1-1202.
  • Medicine and Society
    Feb 2012

    Contraceptive Justice: Why We Need a Male Pill

    Lisa Campo-Engelstein, PhD
    A more just sharing of the responsibility for contraception can only be achieved through the development of male birth control methods and reconceptualizing responsibility for contraception as shared between men and women.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):146-151. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.msoc1-1202.
  • History of Medicine
    Feb 2012

    Federal Sterilization Policy: Unintended Consequences

    Susan P. Raine, JD, MD, LLM
    In the past, forced sterilizations violated the autonomy of vulnerable women. Today, measures intended to protect such women from the abuses of the past may in fact hamper their autonomy in a different way.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):152-157. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.mhst1-1202.
  • Viewpoint
    Feb 2012

    Selecting the Traits of Children Prior to Birth

    Timothy F. Murphy, PhD
    Most discussion about using prenatal interventions to choose traits of children involves selecting traits that will contribute to intelligence, athleticism or strength, resistance to disease, and longevity, outcomes many of us would find desirable for ourselves.
    Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(2):158-161. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.2.oped1-1202.