Project description
Ethics in the age of technological progress: Female reproductive medicine in focus
Reproductive medicine covers all aspects of human life from fertilisation till birth and addresses problems of natural conception through medically assisted treatment. In the era of rapidly progressing technologies, the key objective of the EU-funded ERIN project is to bring more ethically responsible innovations into the clinic in practices such as preserving fertility in women at risk and performing genetic analysis of the embryo. The project's partners will address all possible ethical concerns, risks and vulnerabilities associated with novel reproductive solutions, preparing the ground for ethically responsible practices. Furthermore, they will ensure equal access to reproductive medicine for vulnerable women waiting for childbirth.
Objective
ERIN project was initiated to spread the academic excellence to University of Tartu (UT) in Estonia as representative of the Widening country, by enhancing networking activities with internationally-leading counterparts, Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and Maastricht University Medical Centre (The Netherlands).
The consortium increases the scientific, innovation and clinical superbness of UT and its partners, by raising the R&I profiles, and the proficiency to identify, explore and resolve the ethical challenges in female reproductive medicine. We deal with the most intimate aspects of human life, by medically assisting conception, by carrying out a genetic analysis of an embryo or fetus to have a healthy baby, and by preserving fertility in women whose fertility is at risk. In the era of rapidly progressing technologies, novel solutions emerge fasten than the conclusive clinical evidence is collected and ethical challenges are addressed. Reproductive medicine is also often unsatisfactorily publicly supported, creating an inequality in access for the most vulnerable category of the patients, women waiting for childbirth.
This is why reproductive medicine, covering human life from fertilization till birth, requires special attention to tackle all possible ethical concerns, risks and vulnerabilities, and involving all stakeholders, from individual patients to broad community. By addressing these challenges, we aim to bring more ethically responsible innovations into clinic that do not harm the interests of the various stakeholders, are evidence-based, cost-effective and therefore could be implemented in a sustainable way to ensure that these novel solutions become widely accessible.
As an outcome, ERIN improves the responsible innovation practices, establish ethical system in R&I, expands knowledge and innovation capacity of the UT, and improves proficiency of all partners to facilitate the equity of access to research advances in reproductive medicine.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.4.b. - Twinning of research institutions Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
51005 Tartu
Estonia