ABSTRACT
Ethical issues at the beginning of life include several key concerns: the moral legitimacy of birth control and assisted reproduction; the moral status accorded early forms of human life, especially human embryos and fetuses; questions about the legitimacy of reproductive and so-called “therapeutic” cloning; and decisions about life-sustaining treatment in the context of neonatology and early pediatric care. These concerns have been extensively discussed in philosophical and religious bioethics, as well as in the legal and policy literature, and we will not treat them in detailed fashion here. Instead, we will identify the major ethical values invoked in such discussions and provide a sense of the complexity of such debates.
