Cancer and Fertility: Ethical and Legal Challenges

Preserving the fertility of younger cancer patients requires coordinated efforts and attention to ethical issues by oncologists and fertility specialists. Although sperm is easily stored, freezing eggs or ovarian tissue is still experimental and should not be offered except as part of an experimental protocol. When gametic material is stored for later use, written directives for posthumous use may be given effect, and subsequently born children may be recognized as legal offspring of the deceased. Concerns about the welfare of offspring resulting from an expected shortened life span of the parent are not sufficient reason to deny cancer survivors assistance in reproducing.