The Baby Business

Over the past several decades, breakthroughs in medicine and biotechnology have begun to alter the basic process of birth. Increasingly, parents are able to protect their unborn children from potential life-threatening diseases, or give birth to children that are chosen for specific genetic qualities. Infertility treatments are pushing back the age at which women can give birth, and novel surrogacy arrangements have given couples the opportunity to have others bear their children.

This discussion will consider how governments craft policies to deal with the social, moral, and commercial challenges that accompany the advances in stem cell technology and other reproductive sciences. We will consider questions such as: Should the U.S. government follow its European counterparts in regulating reproductive medicine more closely? Should the U.S. subsidize parents who want to pursue assisted reproduction? How can the federal government align its current policies with regard to stem cell technologies, which are heavily restrictive, with its laissez-faire approach to assisted reproduction? How will private firms respond to the market opportunities that reproductive science now offers? How will firms deal with the regulatory and moral challenges that will undoubtedly accompany these scientific advances?

Participants

• Debra Spar
  Professor, Harvard Business School and Author, The Baby Business
• David Gray
  Director, Workforce and Family Program, New America Foundation