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Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

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prevent the spread of disease, <strong>and</strong> these should be followed carefully. The current<br />

recommendation on HIV control requires that the donor be tested for HIV when the<br />

semen is collected. The semen is then frozen for six months. The donor is tested<br />

again at the end of the six months. Only after this second test is negative can the<br />

semen be used. [ACOG Committee Opinion 109. Maximizing Pregnancy Rates<br />

Resulting from Donor Insemination with Frozen Semen. April 1992.]<br />

h) Unmarried Couples<br />

There is an ethical debate over whether fertility technology should be available to<br />

unmarried couples. This is not an issue for techniques that correct physiological or<br />

psychological conditions that impair fertility, when the patient then conceives<br />

through intercourse with a self-selected partner. Although the physician may not<br />

approve of the behavior, just as he or she might disapprove of premarital sex in<br />

general, the physician has no right to impose his or her values on the patient. It<br />

does become an issue when physicians are asked to do procedures such as in vitro<br />

fertilization or artificial insemination.<br />

Although many physicians believe that marriage should not be a precondition to<br />

artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, there is a societal policy, expressed<br />

through various laws, against having children outside of marriage. Most state laws<br />

on artificial insemination by donor (AID), which is the usual request, are written in<br />

terms of a married couple. It is not clear whether any of these laws forbids the<br />

artificial insemination of an unmarried woman. They do, however, leave a child<br />

born of AI outside of marriage in a legal limbo.<br />

In some states, specific statutory authorization was necessary to permit AID.<br />

Without the statutory authorization, AID contravened state laws on adultery or<br />

fornication. If an authorizing law is written solely in terms of a married couple, then<br />

AID of an unmarried woman might violate fornication or adultery laws. Given that<br />

laws against fornication <strong>and</strong> adultery are constitutional, the constitutional right of<br />

reproductive freedom may not extend to unmarried couples. State civil rights laws<br />

requiring married <strong>and</strong> unmarried persons to be treated in the same way might imply<br />

that an unmarried person is entitled to AID or in vitro fertilization. Conversely,<br />

since in most states a married woman cannot be artificially inseminated without her<br />

husb<strong>and</strong>’s permission, equal treatment might also mean that AID is not available<br />

without a husb<strong>and</strong>.<br />

Physicians who choose to offer AID <strong>and</strong> in vitro fertilization to unmarried persons<br />

should seek legal advice to ensure that they do not violate any state laws. They<br />

should be meticulous in both infectious <strong>and</strong> genetic disease investigation. This is a<br />

controversial area. Physicians may be involved in highly publicized lawsuits if the<br />

couple decides to break up <strong>and</strong> the donor contests paternity.<br />

C. A Structured Approach to Obstetric Care<br />

Most obstetric malpractice is due to medical system failures rather than<br />

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