COUNSELLING CHILDLESS COUPLES FACING THE ETHICS OF CURRENT REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN A POSTMODERN

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COUNSELLING CHILDLESS COUPLES FACING THE ETHICS
OF CURRENT REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN A
POST-MODERN SOCIETY
Pastor Ian Nash
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Article in The Mercury of Thursday 7 August 2008
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Introduction Married couples who share a bond of
suffering. Not illness, but torment Worst at
times of celebration Christmas, Mothers Day,
Baby Showers, Family reunions. Barrenness
(Infertility)
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So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him male and female he created
them. God blessed them and said to them, Be
fruitful and increase in number fill the earth
and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and
the birds of the air and over every living
creature that moves on the ground. (Genesis
127-28) Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she
became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said,
With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a
man. (Genesis 41)
Childless couples Abram and Sarai (Genesis 15
18) Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 18) Hannah (1
Samuel 1)
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CAUSES AND TREATMENTS OF INFERTILITY SUMMARY Cau
ses Treatment DETAILS THE WOMAN ANOVULATION ENDO
METRIOSIS FIBROIDS POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN
DISEASE BLOCKED OR DAMAGED FALLOPIAN TUBES
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CAUSES AND TREATMENTS OF INFERTILITY DETAILS THE
MAN LOW SPERM COUNT MOTILITY MATURATION
ARREST GERMINAL CELL APLASIA MALE TUBE BLOCKAGES
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ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY (IUI) AIH AID I
VF ICSI GIFT IN VIVO DONOR OOCYTE SURROGACY
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• SOME ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• A.I.H. PROs AND CONs
• Both parties are natural parents to the child
• I-Thou relationship
• No real partnership but rather vagrantly
• Physical and psychological extravagance
• A.I.D. PROs AND CONs
• Child inherits wifes characteristics
• Normally donor well matched
• Third party introduction
• Two basic questions
• Responsibilities?
• Payment?

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I.V.F. CONCERNS Dyson Ethics of IVF Lists
summarily and without comment some 23 ethical
objections to IVF. As he states, they are
intended to represent the kind of standpoint
which the objector might adopt.
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POST-MODERNISM Jay Kesler This generation is
that whose grandparents had a Christian belief,
parents who have a memory of that belief and now
children who have nothing. R. Schrader Three
Umpires Moreland summarises the basic tenets of
Postmodernism under six points.
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COUNSELLING COUPLES
Charles Gerkin in An Introduction to Pastoral
Care says that good pastoral care is not
simply talk about the gospel or some general
statement of its applicability to peoples lives.
Rather, good pastoral care embodies the gospel
in relationships by speaking to the inner beings
of individuals.