Developing ethical public policy on reproduction and prenatal research: whose interests deserve what protection?

Have physicians and medical researchers begun to play God? Many procedures, including in vitro fertilization, involve treating and transferring embryos: this constitutes experimentation on human beings without the capacity to consent. Will medical ethics meet an increasing societal commitment towards ever greater respect and protection of human life from non-therapeutic experimentation? The medico-ethical aspects of this sensitive and complex issue are examined in detail.