Reproductive ethics and the family

The phrase 'reproductive ethics', as used by bioethicists, typically refers to concerns over morally appropriate employment of assisted reproductive technologies and, perhaps somewhat less commonly, to issues arising from technologies that block conception or end pregnancies. I here recommend to the attention of the field a more commodious use of 'reproductive ethics', one that takes seriously how humans are brought into the world as moral and social beings, and not simply as biological individuals. As a focus for this expanded agenda, I examine prevalent disagreements over the patterns and sources of the responsibilities and prerogatives that help define family structures, both as these are reflected in assisted reproductive practices involving the purchase of gametes, and in U.S. legal controversies about whether parents, or family courts, should determine who has the right to a relationship with children.