ABSTRACT
New reproductive technologies permit parents to have a genetic link with their children. But by doing so, they decrease the number of potential adoptive and foster parents. In New York City, abandoned babies live in hospital cribs and take their first steps while holding a nurse's hand. Judge Sorkow's opinion echoes the argument that John Robertson makes for recognition of a constitutionally protected right to procreate by any means available, in his article, 'Procreative Liberty, Embryos, and Collaborative Reproduction'. The right to procreate is among the individual liberty interests protected by the Constitution. But even if courts extend constitutional protections to new reproductive technologies, state laws burdening such rights can withstand challenge if they are narrowly drawn to protect public health. Forbidding the sale of gametes, embryos, and gestation may prevent the worst abuses of the new reproductive technologies. Nevertheless, some of the larger social issues lurking behind the growing use of the new reproductive technologies remain unresolved.
