Fertility preservation in cancer patients: Ethical considerations

Abstract

Ethical consideration has a strong history and is of prime importance in the field medicine. Starting from the birth of Western medical ethics, the Hippocratic Oath, to the modern framework set forth by the Principalist approach [1] which involves the consideration of four principles - autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice. These four principles are not rigid mandates. Rather, these principles are meant to provide a useful framework to help health care providers make decisions when reflecting on moral issues as they arise. Although these principles are useful for many medical encounters, certain situations may present conflict between two or more principles and ethical dilemmas may arise. The burgeoning field of reproductive medical technology is ripe with ethical dilemmas and suggests a need for on-going ethical analysis as the sensitive topics of human life and reproductive rights are addressed. One of the most recent medical advances in reproductive medicine, attracting ethical consideration, is the practice of fertility preservation in cancer patients. The reproductive technologies allowing fertility preservation in cancer patients were born out of a recognized need to address the reported psychological distressed caused by infertility [2-7] in the increasing population of cancer survivors with impaired fertility [8]. The ethical endorsement of the practice of offering fertility preservation to cancer patients stems from the ethical principle of autonomy, referring to self-government and free choice, which promotes the individual right to reproduce and beneficence, to do good to patients by relieving distress associated with infertility. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.