The New Frontier in Ethics and Infertility: Reproductive Tissue Transplant, A Case Study of the U.S. and the U.K.

The latest advancement in reproductive medicine - reproductive tissue transplant - has come onto the scene, bringing with it great possibilities for the treatment of infertility but even more questions and challenges about regulation and ethics. Reproductive tissue transplants may hold the key to treating certain types of infertility, like cancer-related infertility. However, they raise a fundamental question about whether the practice should be regulated as infertility treatment or transplant medicine and consequently, other issues set forth in these regulations like how to handle consent, how to distribute and allocate resources, and whether to permit payment of potential donors.