Final Report (all chapters)

conducting targeted inspections of fertility clinics aimed at verifying the accuracy of the
information provided.
FCSRCA demonstrates that, far from being mutually exclusive, the credibility and
effectiveness of self-regulatory programs can be improved through formal regulation. It also
shows that much federal regulation is based directly on self-regulatory standards. At the same
time, the preceding discussion also suggests that self-regulation, all by itself, is neither
sufficiently credible nor very effective, an observation that carries over to the ART industry, to
which we now turn.
5.3.2 Self-Regulation in the ART Industry
In this section, we describe in some detail the ART industry’s system of self-regulation. The
discussion has two main purposes. We show that self-regulation in this sector cannot simply be
considered a public relations scheme designed to prevent regulatory action. Self-regulation
consists of an extensive network of private organizations that has promulgated numerous
standards pertaining to medical practice, and has issued many ethical recommendations. To put it
bluntly, self-regulation in the ART industry should be taken seriously. However, while our
discussion will demonstrate that self-regulation is an incomplete system of governance, backed
by the power of the state, the ART industry system of self-regulation could become both a
credible and an effective system of regulation.
American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The ASRM is the leading professional group
representing the industry interests at the national level. ASRM has approximately 9,000
members, 25 percent of which are international. Its members include not only reproductive
physicians, but also scientists, nurses, and other specialists whom, taken together, cover OB-
GYN, urology, psychiatry, andrology, and embryology. Each major professional specialty in the
industry is organized into a separate professional society. There are three major professional
groups – the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI), the Society of
Reproductive Surgeons (SRS), and the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU).
The ASRM offers services typical of any professional association: It lobbies federal and
state representatives on behalf of its members; it offers professional education and certification;
it has a well-established and extensive record of developing standards and guidelines pertaining
to the practice of reproductive medicine; and it has developed health and safety standards and
operating procedures pertaining to embryo labs. Importantly, it also has adopted consensus
recommendations on numerous controversial ethical questions.
The governance structure of ASRM consists of an executive committee, three standing
committees, and 26 appointed committees. Two committees, the practice committee and the
ethics committee, are of particular relevance to the present discussion. Both are appointed
committees. According to Sandra Carson, former ASRM president, the ethics committee
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