After reading your previous editor´s viewpoint, "Integrity in scientific publication", about ethical problems in scientific papers, I started to think one more time of another ethical issue in medicine: artificial insemination (1).
Artificial insemination (AI) is the most simple and oldest method in assisted reproductive technology, which has a low degree of complexity. Essentially, it involves placing sperm -previously prepared in the laboratory - in the female internal genital tract without sexual contact (2). AI carries the associated risk of multiple gestation pregnancies, since before the procedure women are given drugs that induce ovulation. This also leads to the possibility of a superovulation (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome).
If the fertilization of several eggs really occurs, selective fetal reduction may be necessary, which comprises a paradoxical situation for women eager to have a child. Moreover, there must be an informed consent signed by women providing information on side effects of the technique, such as nausea, vomiting, ovarian enlargement and the possibility of occurrence of ovarian cysts (3).
The first question that arises from assisted reproduction is that it involves a type of human procreation dissociated from sexual partners. In addition, it is not therapeutic in its nature and do not cure infertility or reverse this situation (4).
Interestingly, the controversy or legitimacy of assisted reproduction techniques relies particularly on women. It may follow different positions according to the concept of family. Several people consider that the concept of family includes even those constituted by a single woman and her children. Consequently, this statement legitimizes the desire of single women for assisted reproduction methods. This situation creates a paradox since the right to reproduction is not an exercise of individual persons, but of a couple.
