The Harms of Procreative Deprivation

This chapter examines how recent efforts to address the harms done to several Americans have taken shape as formal apologies and payments to surviving victims. This contemporary hand-wringing is an important acknowledgment that state-sponsored reproductive deprivation is among the most profound offenses a citizen can suffer. The chapter questions whether the harms from deprivation of assisted conception services are of equal impact to those wrought by unconsensual, unwanted, and procreative robbing surgeries. Whatever the comparison, each person deprived of an opportunity to parent by law, policy, or provider suffers gravely in ways that go beyond the first-line harm of forced childlessness. These harms befall patients, providers, children, and society in various ways, strengthening the case that disparities in access to ART warrant attention and reform.