Who's Your Baby?

I am sure that I have mentioned at one time or another that I am in genetics and biomedical ethics, both of the classes give me some interesting ideas about what to write these weekly blogs over. Keeping this in mind I doubt it will be hard to see why I chose this particular article to cover but before I go into that there is a few random things I need to say first. In the past few weeks in both of these classes we have discussed reproductive technology and cloning. Both are controversial issues about whether or not man has the right to create life in a petri dish and whether or not these babies are humans or persons. I'm going to leave some of the more controversial ethical issues out for obvious reasons but I am going to talk about man made miracle.
The reason for this particular post is that, yep you guessed it I got my idea from an MSN headline. Today I came across the article "Embryo mix-up baby 'loved by two families'". The TODAY show featured a family with a very interesting story. Sixteen months ago a fertility clinic made a serious mistake when they implanted Shannon and Paul Morell's embryo into the wrong woman, Carolyn Savage. For nine months Savage carried the baby and upon the baby boy's birth handed him over to his rightful parents. Both parties were involved in the pregnancy, and still today exchange emails and see each other occasionally. Looking at 7 month old Logan one would never guess that the little guy had such an exciting beginning.
Cases with mixed up babies are rare, but they do happen. What is even more rare is the fact that both families have maintained a close relationship. Often times when IVF goes wrong both sides are involved in bitter lawsuits and custody battles, occasionally the dispute is even ended in abortion. In my opinion this is the last way that such an issue should be handled but it is often the case.
Mistakes involving embryo implantation are obviously the clinics fault and may be enough to deter some people from going but is it really a good enough justification, after all these babies are miracles. Some individuals and groups cite these mix-ups as reasons that man should not be allowed to tamper with the human reproductive system. The Morell's disagree, before the birth of Logan they had two other children, both the result of in vitro fertilization. “We want to turn a negative to a positive, to help other couples who are out there,” says Shannon. She warns that it is a cautionary tale and says to ask all the questions that one can think of, and then ask some more.
All of this sort of got me thinking, is the risk worth it all? It also makes me wonder how often it happens, stastics say that it is rare, but how many cases go uncaught? I'll leave the complicated issues up to you to consider while I figure out where I stand.