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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hawkins, Richard
Format: Recurso digital
Language:English
Published: Zenodo 2009
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15693593
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author Hawkins, Richard
author_facet Hawkins, Richard
contents <div> <div> <div> <p>Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has enabled millions of infertile individuals and couples to conceive. Current ART practices and procedures, however, often result in multi-fetal pregnancies and, consequently, multiple births, defined as twin, triplet, or higher-order births. Multiple births pose significantly greater health risks to infants and mothers than singleton births do, resulting in substantially higher medical and social costs. The high cost of this reproductive choice, however, is not fully borne by either the ART providers or consumers. Rather, a significant portion of the cost is often borne by society at large.</p> <div> <div> <div> <p>In determining how to address the multiple-birth problem, this Article examines previously proposed solutions in the form of liability rules and inalienability rules and concludes that these proposals have significant shortcomings that would impede their applicability, cloud their constitutionality, and inhibit their political viability. This Article posits that, by viewing the proliferation of ART and the resultant influx of multiple births as a classic negative externality, a property rule can be devised so as to combine the best elements of the previous proposals while minimizing their practical, constitutional, and political pitfalls. Specifically, this Article explores the implementation of a tradable permit program for multiple births similar in format to "cap-and-trade" programs used to control pollutants. If multiple-birth permits distributed by the federal government were bought and sold by interested parties on a centralized exchange, ART providers and consumers would necessarily internalize the cost of their reproductive choices, and the high incidence of multiple births would subsequently decrease to a more manageable level.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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publishDate 2009
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spellingShingle Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Externality of Multiple Births
Hawkins, Richard
<div> <div> <div> <p>Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has enabled millions of infertile individuals and couples to conceive. Current ART practices and procedures, however, often result in multi-fetal pregnancies and, consequently, multiple births, defined as twin, triplet, or higher-order births. Multiple births pose significantly greater health risks to infants and mothers than singleton births do, resulting in substantially higher medical and social costs. The high cost of this reproductive choice, however, is not fully borne by either the ART providers or consumers. Rather, a significant portion of the cost is often borne by society at large.</p> <div> <div> <div> <p>In determining how to address the multiple-birth problem, this Article examines previously proposed solutions in the form of liability rules and inalienability rules and concludes that these proposals have significant shortcomings that would impede their applicability, cloud their constitutionality, and inhibit their political viability. This Article posits that, by viewing the proliferation of ART and the resultant influx of multiple births as a classic negative externality, a property rule can be devised so as to combine the best elements of the previous proposals while minimizing their practical, constitutional, and political pitfalls. Specifically, this Article explores the implementation of a tradable permit program for multiple births similar in format to "cap-and-trade" programs used to control pollutants. If multiple-birth permits distributed by the federal government were bought and sold by interested parties on a centralized exchange, ART providers and consumers would necessarily internalize the cost of their reproductive choices, and the high incidence of multiple births would subsequently decrease to a more manageable level.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>
title Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Externality of Multiple Births
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15693593