Expectativas sobre a investigação científica em embriões: decisores políticos e casais em procriação medicamente assistida

Abstract

This paper analyzes the expectations and rationalities of policy makers and of couples in assisted reproductive technologies in Portugal regarding the decision to donate embryos for scientific research. The interrelationships between the political and lay fields are discussed, based on the content analysis of the following information sources: political speeches which supported the proposal for creating an information system for embryo donors identical to the system for biological organ donors; interviews conducted between August 2011 and August 2012 with 221 couples and 93 women involved in in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, regarding the donation of embryos for research, at Hospital de S. João, Porto. Policymakers and couples are both highly receptive to scientific progress and have high expectations and confidence in the therapeutic power of scientific research on embryonic stem cells. Couples use the ethic of reciprocity, altruism and social responsibility to justify their decisions, whereas policy makers emphasize the contributions of advances in science to the economic field and the promotion of the image of the country. These results reinforce the need to strengthen the participation of various stakeholders in the construction of ethical and social responsibility principles for the regulation of research practices involving embryos of human origin.