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There’s no question but that technology has brought much greater complexity to the process of determining parentage. Not just technology, but the very substantial alternative reproductive technology (ART) that now exists in the United States. There are at least a couple of very important changes to consider, things that will come up regularly here.

ART has created an enormous industry in the United States. (Not true in all countries.) Pick up most college newspapers or surf the web and you will find ads seeking sperm donors and egg donors. Similarly, you can buy sperm on-line, shopping through a catalog of donors. It’s pretty clear that most of us don’t think these are parents selling their children. Indeed, our willingness to commodify sperm and eggs suggests that the genetic link alone is not what makes a person a parent. Instead, sperm and eggs are just bodily products, suitable for sale, along the lines of hair.

Beyond that, ART has severed the link between genetic connection and pregnancy for women. Before ART a woman could only be pregnant with a child to whom she was genetically related. Thus, a woman who gave birth was virtually an unquestioned mother. (Remember the Baby M case, which I will come back to in a later post.) But now a woman can give birth to a child to whom she has no genetic relationship and a woman can be genetically related to a child she did not give birth to. For the first time we must confront these competing claims. (On this too, more later.)

Thus the rise of ART has broadened the debate about parenthood, creating new questions for us, and raising questions with more frequency.