The Ethics of Surrogacy, Egg Donation, and Beyond
Join us for a lecture and discussion with Jennifer Lahl, President of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.
Third-party assisted reproduction technologies—including the use of donor eggs, donor sperm, and surrogate wombs—raise a host of medical, legal, and ethical issues. For example: are there substantial health-risks for female donors and surrogates? Are they disproportionately acting out of financial need? Are there good reasons for regulating these practices better than we currently do? Yet the global fertility industry has great financial gains to make from the wider use of these technologies: last year, MarketWatch, announced the industry would reach $30 billion dollars in gain by 2023.
Location: Rice University, Sewal Hall 309
Tuesday: April 2nd, 6:30-8pm
Wednesday: April 3rd, 7:30-9pm
Jennifer Lahl, R.N., M.A., is the founder and president of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (2010). Lahl also has 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager. As a field expert, she regularly addresses university, radio, and television audiences, and is called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community. Lahl has published in various academic and news outlets, including The Handbook of Gestational Surrogacy (Cambridge University Press), the American Journal of Bioethics, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News. She also serves on the North American Editorial Board for the journal Ethics and Medicine.
Lahl has also produced, directed, and written award-winning documentaries on surrogacy and egg donation. Her films include #BigFertility (2018), Compassion and Choice: Denied (2016), Maggie’s Story (2015), Breeders: A Subclass of Women? (2014), Anonymous Father’s Day (2011), Eggsploitation (2013), and Lines that Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate (2009).
She has three times addressed the United Nations, spoken on egg “trafficking” at the European Parliament in Brussels, and travels the world speaking and testifying to government bodies.
