PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ezio Di Nucci
TI  - IVF, same-sex couples and the value of biological ties
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2015-103257
DP  - 2016 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 784--787
VI  - 42
IP  - 12
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/42/12/784.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/42/12/784.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2016 Dec 01; 42
AB  - Ought parents, in general, to value being biologically tied to their children? Is it important, in particular, that both parents be biologically tied to their children? I will address these fundamental questions by looking at a fairly new practice within IVF treatments, so-called IVF-with-ROPA (Reception of Oocytes from Partner), which allows lesbian couples to ‘share motherhood’, with one partner providing the eggs while the other becomes pregnant. I believe that IVF-with-ROPA is, just like other IVF treatments, morally permissible, but here I argue that the increased biological ties which IVF-with-ROPA allows for do not have any particular value beside the satisfaction of a legitimate wish, because there is no intrinsic value in a biological tie between parents and children; further, I argue that equality within parental projects cannot be achieved by redistributing biological ties.