TY - JOUR
T1 - Expanding Access to Testicular Tissue Cryopreservation
T2 - An Analysis by Analogy
AU - Ruutiainen, Tuua
AU - Miller, Steve
AU - Caplan, Arthur
AU - Ginsberg, Jill P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was generously supported by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research (JPG). Tuua Ruutiainen and Steve Miller are joint first authors. Address correspondence to Tuua Ruutiainen, Tulane Univesity School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA. E-mail: tuua. ruutiainen@gmail.com
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - Researchers are developing a fertility preservation technique-testicular tissue cryopreservation (TTCP)-for prepubescent boys who may become infertile as a result of their cancer treatment. Although this technique is still in development, some researchers are calling for its widespread use. They argue that if boys do not bank their tissue now, they will be unable to benefit from any therapies that might be developed in the future. There are, however, risks involved with increasing access to an investigational procedure. This article examines four methods of expanding access to TTCP: (1) expansion of institutional review board (IRB)-approved research trials; (2) offering TTCP as an innovative procedure in hospitals; (3) offering TTCP as a standard practice in hospitals; and (4) commercialization of TTCP. The ethical and practical implications of each are evaluated through a comparison with umbilical cord blood banking (UCBB), a technology that has achieved widespread use based on similar claims of future benefit.
AB - Researchers are developing a fertility preservation technique-testicular tissue cryopreservation (TTCP)-for prepubescent boys who may become infertile as a result of their cancer treatment. Although this technique is still in development, some researchers are calling for its widespread use. They argue that if boys do not bank their tissue now, they will be unable to benefit from any therapies that might be developed in the future. There are, however, risks involved with increasing access to an investigational procedure. This article examines four methods of expanding access to TTCP: (1) expansion of institutional review board (IRB)-approved research trials; (2) offering TTCP as an innovative procedure in hospitals; (3) offering TTCP as a standard practice in hospitals; and (4) commercialization of TTCP. The ethical and practical implications of each are evaluated through a comparison with umbilical cord blood banking (UCBB), a technology that has achieved widespread use based on similar claims of future benefit.
KW - cancer
KW - children and families
KW - informed consent
KW - medicine
KW - pediatrics
KW - reproductive technologies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84874448988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84874448988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15265161.2012.760672
DO - 10.1080/15265161.2012.760672
M3 - Article
C2 - 23428034
AN - SCOPUS:84874448988
SN - 1526-5161
VL - 13
SP - 28
EP - 35
JO - American Journal of Bioethics
JF - American Journal of Bioethics
IS - 3
ER -