QBoost Question of the Month - June 2019

Question Title

* All the following statements from the ASRM document on planned oocyte cryopreservation (OC) represent the application of ethical principles of either autonomy, non- maleficence, or beneficence.

Which two of the following statements BEST AND ACCURATELY represent the ethical principle of beneficence: the ethical precept obliging physicians to act for the patient’s welfare?

A. Planned OC represents a preventive strategy that may enhance the reproductive potential of women and the health of offspring. Although cryopreserving oocytes in this context is not undertaken in response to an immediate disease, it is undertaken with the goal of preventing untreatable infertility in the future.

B. The beneficence considerations are comparable between sperm versus planned oocyte preservation.

C. Planned OC potentially avoids problems from ‘‘second parties.’’ The disputes over embryos that may erupt when gamete providers separate or divorce can pose clinical, emotional, and legal difficulties, all avoidable when individual gametes, rather than embryos, are preserved for later use.

D. Planned OC may improve women's ability to organize their education, work, and family building with less pressure from the ‘‘biological clock.’’

E. Some argue against planned OC that the intervention is too physically invasive and risky to perform on women with no immediate threat of infertility.