Problems of Intervention in Human Reproduction: a Sociological Analysis

This article contains the sociological analysis of scientific intervention in the sphere of human reproduction, reproductive technologies that are based on scientific and technical achievements and the resolution of issues of reproduction and regulation of posterity in modern Russia. Research has traditionally discussed the technology of pregnancy interruption (abortion) and modern achievements of science, particularly in the field of the new reproductive technologies (NRT) such as artificial insemination, extracorporal fertilisation and cloning. The current study respondents were the most reproductively active segment of the population – young people from 18 to 25 years. Furthermore, they were economic, technical, humanitarian, medical students who Проблемы вмешательства в репродукцию человека: социологический анализ 33№ 3(10), сентябрь 2014were training in higher education institutions in Kursk. The researchers obtained information on the essence and difficulties of reproductive technologies. As Russia currently endures a demographic crisis, which many experts connect with quite liberal law on pregnancy interruption, the authors closely examined the abortion issue and determined youth’s motives and degree of readiness to utilise this procedure. The second part of this research identified the relation of young people to new reproductive technologies. Such technologies have been a part of clinical practice for several decades; however, they continue to cause disputes among experts and among the public. The authors reveal a peculiar paradox. On the one hand, the deficiency of qualitative information on NRT and youth’s readiness to use these technologies can lead to sharp anthropological and sociocultural risks. At the same time, the development of reproductive technologies is not only accompanied by improvements in the methods and techniques due to progress in science but also by an increase in problems that cause difficult discussions in society and demand their resolving more persistently. In this regard, the presented research of the estimates of medical technologies in the field of human reproduction will allow the development of a number of advisory measures concerning the most optimal and careful use of such technologies.

sociology of science, bioethics, reproductive technologies, public opinion