Technical procedure and ethical behaviour in biotechnologies of reproduction

The significant and constant progress of biotechnologies applied to sterility and infertility has induced a deeper reflection about bioethical problems. The analysis of only the biological dimension, about the results achieved and desirable future prospects, decreases, leaving out the anthropological dimension. It is therefore necessary to make reference to both the limits of the basic or applied research and to the usual welfare procedure. The aim, that the article sets itself, is to proceed to the bioethical analysis of the most significant topics of artificial insemination and assisted procreation; and it submits to anthropological evaluation the technical aspects, which characterize both the procreation techniques and the research prospects in this area.

The bioethical analysis, used as a method of study and research, has availed itself of structured reasoning through the evaluation of the scientific, anthropological and legal-deontological dimensions, from an interdisciplinary point of view. The definition of the ethical norm, supported by authors, has been inferred from the analysis of the above-mentioned dimensions, considering the already known bioethical models. In particular, the authors analyse these topics through the model of ontologically based personalism, which suggests, and highlights, ethical norms, both as regards the basic and applied research and as regards usual welfare procedure, in opposition to models like moral sociologism, biologism, moral evolutionism and contractualism. From the beginning we defined "technical procedure" and "ethical behaviour", highlighting the interaction between them. We have made a distinction between artificial insemination, as a substitutive technique, and assisted procreation, as a facilitative technique. In addition through biological and anthropological results we have evaluated the embryo both ontologically and biologically. So we have defined "ontological and biological embryo status".

The evaluation of the proposed topics for assisted procreation and against artificial insemination, the interaction between technical procedure and ethical behaviour, the acknowledgement of the embryo and personal dignity in every procedure are the principal results and the conclusions that we have arrived at, as regards the bioethical model of ontologically based personalism.