Coming soon to your clinic: patient-friendly ART

Hum Reprod. 2007 Aug;22(8):2075-9. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dem158. Epub 2007 Jun 21.

Abstract

The current practice in medically assisted reproduction is still too exclusively focused on effectiveness and success rates. This has a number of considerable, and more importantly, avoidable drawbacks. Single embryo transfer was an important move away from this model to include safety and welfare of mother and child. Patient-friendly ART goes one big step further. It is composed of a mix of four criteria: cost-effectiveness, equity of access, minimal risk for mother and child and minimal burden for patients. All four components have a strong normative ethical basis: cost-effectiveness relies on the optimal use of community resources to maximise well-being; equity of access is based on justice, minimal risk is founded on the fundamental non-maleficence rule and minimal burden is largely based on the autonomy principle. The inclusion of the four criteria in decision-making about treatment would express these values in clinical practice.

MeSH terms

  • Embryo Transfer* / adverse effects
  • Embryo Transfer* / ethics
  • Female
  • Health Services Accessibility
  • Humans
  • Infertility / therapy*
  • Male
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy, Multiple
  • Reproductive Techniques, Assisted* / economics
  • Reproductive Techniques, Assisted* / ethics
  • Risk Reduction Behavior