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Paper Presentation

Research Ethics and Social Sciences

Session: Genetic Testing

The Expanding Role of Genetic Testing in IVF: Ethical Stakes and Clinical Implications

Friday, October 24, 2025
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM Pacific Time
Location: B117-118
Abstract: In the context of in vitro fertilization (IVF), preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) allows patients to test lab-cultured embryos for monogenic conditions (PGT-M), aneuploidy (PGT-A), or structural rearrangements (PGT-SR). Within the last decade, the use of PGT has skyrocketed in the United States and is now used in half of all IVF cycles.1 IVF clinics consider PGT an “add-on” service, part of a list of therapeutic interventions available for an extra fee. In the U.S., the average cost to achieve a live birth using IVF and PGT is approximately $30,000.2 This paper will focus on the rising use of PGT-A, which tests IVF embryos for chromosomal abnormalities to inform embryo selection. Professional societies, geneticists, and IVF clinicians have questioned the efficacy of PGT-A, calling for more randomized control trials.
This paper presentation examines how IVF professionals conceptualize the ethics of PGT-A, a procedure and technology both increasingly routine and contested, in their clinical practices. Through qualitative interviews with and clinical observation alongside reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists, and IVF patients in the U.S., I reveal the ethical stakes that surround the use of PGT-A today. I balance understandings of access to PGT-A as an issue of reproductive autonomy and nonmaleficence alongside critiques of PGT’s industry-self-regulation and risk of patient exploitation. By scrutinizing how this technology becomes normalized in the clinical setting, this study can better inform ethics guidelines regarding its current and future application.

1. Hipp et al. 2022
2. Khorshid et al. 2021.

Keywords: Genetic testing, Reproductive medicine, IVF

Learning Objectives:

After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
  • At the end of this session, attendees will be able to describe current debate surrounding the usage of preimplantation genetic testing in the United States.
  • At the end of this session, attendees will be able to give examples of how PGT is employed in clinical practice.
  • At the end of this session, attendees will be able to assess the ethical challenges surrounding the use of PGT-A through the key principles of bioethics.