Morals or markets? Regulating assisted reproductive technologies as morality or economic policies in the states.
BACKGROUND
The availability of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in the medical marketplace complicates our understanding of reproductive public policy in the United States. Political debates over ARTs often are based on fundamental moral principles of life, reproduction, and kinship, similar to other reproductive policies in the United States. However, ARTs are an important moneymaking private enterprise for the U.S. biotechnology industry. This project investigates how the U.S. states regulate these unique and challenging technologies as either moral policies or economic policies.


METHODS
This study employs ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to estimate the significance of morality and economic policy variables on ART policies at the state level, noting associations between state-level political, economic, and gender variables on restrictive and permissive state-level ART policies.


RESULTS
Economic variables (reflecting the biotechnology industry) and advocacy for access to ART on behalf of infertility patients increase the chances of states passing policies that enable consumer use of ARTs. Additionally, individual ART policies are distinct from one another in the ways that morality variables increase the chances of ART regulations. Surprisingly, the role of religious adherence among state residents varied in positive and negative relationships with individual policy passage.


CONCLUSIONS
In general, these results support the hypothesis that ART laws are associated with economic as well as moral concerns of the states-ARTs lie at the intersection of issues of life and reproduction and of scientific innovation and health. What is most striking about these results is that they do not follow patterns seen in the legislation of abortion, contraception, and sexuality in general-those reproductive policies that are considered "morality policy." Similarly, economic variables are not consistently significant in the expected direction.
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D000028:Abortion, Induced D001709:Biotechnology D003267:Contraception D005260:Female D033161:Government Regulation D019981:Health Care Sector D006801:Humans D007246:Infertility D016018:Least-Squares Analysis D007883:Legislation, Medical D008297:Male D040541:Marketing D009014:Morals D010344:Patient Advocacy D011247:Pregnancy D011640:Public Policy D012067:Religion D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted D012725:Sexual Behavior D019529:Sexuality D014481:United States
assisted reproductive technologies United States regulation and policy