Abstract
In some areas of clinical medicine, discussions about fertility preservation are routine, such as in the treatment of children and adolescents facing cancer treatments that will destroy their ability to produce gametes of their own. Certain professional organizations now offer guidelines for people who wish to modify their bodies and appearance in regard to sex traits, and these guidelines extend to recommendations about fertility preservation. Since the removal of testicles or ovaries will destroy the ability to have genetically related children later on, it is imperative to counsel transgender people seeking body modifications about fertility preservation options. Fertility preservation with transgender people will, however, lead to unconventional outcomes. If transgender men and women use their ova and sperm, respectively, to have children, they will function as a mother or father in a gametic sense but will function in socially reversed parental identities. There is nothing, however, about fertility preservation with transgender men and women that is objectionable in its motives, practices, or outcomes that would justify closing off these options. In any case, novel reproductive technologies may extend this kind of role reversal in principle to all people, if sperm and ova can be derived from all human beings regardless of sex, as has happened with certain laboratory animals.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BBC News. 2004. Baby born from 21-year-old sperm. BBC News, May 25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3742319.stm. Accessed June 8, 2012.
Beattie, T. 2008. Labor of love: The story of one man’s extraordinary pregnancy. New York: Avalon.
Campbell, A.T., and A. English. 2011. Law, ethics, and clinical discretion: Recurring and emerging issues in adolescent health care. Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews 22(2): 321–334.
Catsanos, R., W. Rogers, and M. Lotz. 2011. The ethics of uterus transplantation. Bioethics. 2011. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2011.01897.x.
Charo, A. 2001. Every cell is sacred: Logical consequences of the argument from potential in the age of cloning. In Cloning and the future of human embryo research, ed. P. Lauritzen, 82–92. New York: Oxford University Press.
De Sutter, P., K. Kir, A. Verschoor, and A. Hotimsky. 2002. The desire to have children and the preservation of fertility in transsexual women. The International Journal of Transgenderism 6(3). http://www.wpath.org/journal/www.iiav.nl/ezines/web/IJT/97-03/numbers/symposion/ijtvo06no03_02.htm. Accessed June 8, 2012.
Garaffa, G., N.A. Christopher, and D. Ralph. 2009. Total phallic reconstruction in male-to-female transsexuals. European Urology 57(4): 715–722.
Ginsberg, J.P., C.A. Carlson, K. Lin, et al. 2009. An experimental protocol for fertility preservation in prepubertal boys recently diagnosed with cancer: A report of acceptability and safety. Human Reproduction 25(1): 37–41.
Green, R. 1978. Sexual identity of 37 children raised by homosexual or transsexual parents. American Journal of Psychiatry 135(6): 692–697.
Green, R. 1998. Children of transsexual parents: Research and clinical overview. In A stranger in my own body: Atypical gender identity development and mental health, ed. D. DiCeglie and D. Freedman, 260–265. London: Karnac Books.
Hembree, W.C., P. Cohen-Kettenis, H.A. Determarre-van de Waal, et al. 2009. Endocrine treatment of transsexual persons: An endocrine society clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 94(9): 3132–3154.
Illinois Compiled Statutes. Vital Records Act 410 ILCS 535/17. http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1573&ChapterID=35. Accessed June 8, 2012.
McCloskey, D. 1999. Crossing: A memoir. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Murphy, T.F. 2010. The ethics of helping transgender men and women have children. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 53(1): 46–60.
Murphy, T.F. 2012. Crossing cultural divides: Transgender people who want to have children. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 21(2): 284–286.
Nagy, Z.P., I. Kerkis, and C.C. Chang. 2008. Development of artificial gametes. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 16(4): 539–544.
National Center for Transgender Equality. 2009. Understanding transgender. http://transequality.org/Resources/NCTE_UnderstandingTrans.pdf. Accessed June 8, 2012.
Roberts, F. 2011. He’s definitely got his figure back: World’s first pregnant man unveils muscular physique after three babies in three years. Daily Mail, July 28. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019579/Worlds-pregnant-man-Thomas-Beatie-unveils-muscular-body-3-babies.html. Accessed June 8, 2012.
Wallace, W.H.B., and R.D. Barr. 2010. Fertility preservation for girls and young women with cancer: What are the remaining challenges? Human Reproduction 16(6): 614–616.
White, T., and R. Ettner. 2004. Children of parents who make a gender transition: Disclosure, risks, and protective factors. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy 8(1/2): 129–145.
Wiercxk, K., E. Van Caenegem, G. Pennings, et al. 2012. Reproductive wish in transsexual men. Human Reproduction 27(2): 483–487.
World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). 2011. Standards of care for the health of transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people, 7th version. http://www.wpath.org/publications_standards.cfm. Accessed June 8, 2012.
Wyns, C., M. Curaba, B. Vanabelle, A. Van Langendonckt, and J. Donnez. 2010. Options for fertility preservation in prepubertal boys. Human Reproduction Update 16(3): 312–328.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murphy, T.F. The Ethics of Fertility Preservation in Transgender Body Modifications. Bioethical Inquiry 9, 311–316 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-012-9378-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-012-9378-7