Environmental Ethics and Medical Reproduction - Hardcover

by Cristina Richie (Author)

Carbon emissions of global health care activities comprise 4-5% of total world emissions, placing the health care industry on par with the food sector. The United States health care industry in particular expends an estimated 479 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year -- nearly 8% of the country's total emissions. Health care impacts the environment through the use of resources needed to cure, treat, and prevent diseases; by extending lifespans; and by facilitating new births. In this book, Dr. Cristina Richie evaluates "medicalized reproduction" (MR) from an environmental perspective. From pre-conception gamete retrieval to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), to birthing suites, MR has an enormous carbon footprint. But, unlike other areas of high-carbon health care, such as organ transplantation or chemotherapy, medicalized reproduction does not treat, cure, or prevent disease. It is supported by an economized medical industry, and as such, is open for ethical scrutiny.

Author Biography

Cristina Richie is Lecturer of Ethics of Technology at the University of Edinburgh. She has previously held positions as Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics at Delft University of Technology (2020-23), Assistant Professor in Bioethics and Interdisciplinary Studies at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University (2017-20), and Visiting Assistant Professor in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (2019).