van Nistelrooij Inge, Woestenburg Nicolette
Department of Care Ethics, University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Pro Facto, Groningen, The Netherlands.
J Med Ethics. 2025 Apr 24;51(5):jme-2024-110230. doi: 10.1136/jme-2024-110230.
The previously published on the debate in the UK and the Netherlands concerning the legal age limits imposed on donor-conceived people for access to information about the identity of gamete and embryo donors. In that publication, three arguments were foregrounded against lowering these age limits as a general rule for all donor-conceived people. In this contribution, we engage with these arguments and argue why we think they are insufficient to maintain the age limits. In contrast, we argue for a more suited, contextual and relational ethical framework based on care ethics, which emphasises relational autonomy and its dynamic, contextual development. This framework, we argue, provides a comprehensive approach for the analysis we made of the question of age limits and was applied in research performed in the Netherlands, commissioned by the Dutch Minister of Health. The framework enabled us to weigh the multidisciplinary-legal, psychological, phenomenological and ethical-findings of our research.
此前已发表了关于英国和荷兰就对通过捐赠受孕者获取配子和胚胎捐赠者身份信息所设定的法定年龄限制展开的辩论。在该出版物中，提出了三条反对将这些年龄限制普遍降低至所有通过捐赠受孕者的理由。在本论文中，我们探讨了这些理由，并阐述为何我们认为它们不足以维持现有年龄限制。相反，我们主张基于关怀伦理构建一个更合适、情境化且具有关联性的伦理框架，该框架强调关系自主性及其动态的、情境化的发展。我们认为，这一框架为我们对年龄限制问题的分析提供了一种全面的方法，并且已应用于荷兰卫生部长委托开展的荷兰研究中。该框架使我们能够权衡研究中的多学科——法律、心理、现象学和伦理方面的研究结果。
