Jerri Nims Rooker testifies for Senate Study Committee on Rights Relating to Reproductive and Genetic Technology
September 25, 2007
On September 25th, Center Assistant Director Jerri Nims Rooker testified for the Georgia Senate Study Committee on Rights Relating to Reproductive and Genetic Technology about ethical and legal issues of new technologies involving the embryo. The Study Committee was created during the 2007 legislative session to consider various issues raised by new reproductive technologies, including property rights in embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, inheritance rights and benefits of posthumously-conceived children, the treatment of embryos unneeded for fertility treatment or reproductive purposes, and the ethics of the use of unused embryos in scientific research. Click to read the text of Senate Resolution 280, which created the Study Committee.
Assistant Director Nims Rooker was asked to testify on the ethical and legal issues in reproductive and genetic technologies. Her testimony included issues that arise pre-fertilization, post-fertilization, and when considering disposition options for excess embryos. The presentation included discussion of the relationship between law, science, and ethics and issues referenced by the scientific, legal, and ethics communities when considering the status of the embryo (as property, a person, or an in-between status deserving of respect).