Making Babies in the 21st Century

This free online course takes as its starting point a person or couple who want to make a baby but can’t, due to their infertility, advanced age, sexuality or lack of partner. Understand the choices that surround assisted reproduction As soon as anyone decides to use reproductive technology to help them in their quest to have biological offspring, they are confronted with a dizzying array of choices and dilemmas: to have a sperm or egg donor; to choose a known or an anonymous donor; to use a surrogate (and, if so, in an ethical way); to test the fetus for genetic abnormalities; to choose a gender or a genetic profile; and to decide what kind of family the baby will eventually call their own. All of these issues pose urgent ethical challenges. But who decides what’s right or wrong? Who is potentially harmed? And how is this changing our society? Explore the challenges posed by reproductive technology Making Babies in the 21st Century will look at human reproduction in an age where reproductive technology is becoming the norm, exploring the social, ethical and legal challenges that currently confront us. The course will enable you to: explore how technology is changing the way babies are made and how family life is constructed; appreciate the key ethical dilemmas that these new technologies bring; and gain awareness of the social aspects of the relevant ethical challenges Learn with UCL’s Institute for Women’s Health The course has grown out of the MSc in Women’s Health developed by the Institute for Women’s Health at UCL (University College London). The Institute brings together the expertise of clinicians and researchers from a diverse range of disciplines to make a real and sustainable difference to women’s and babies’ health locally, nationally and worldwide.