Discrimination, Age, and Women’s Access to Assisted Reproduction

This paper investigates whether the age restriction used in several countries to regulate women's access to assisted reproduction constitutes wrongful discrimination. The focus is on how age restrictions, whether in the law or in fertility practices, differ between men and women and between younger and older women. It will be argued that these laws and practices wrongly discriminate against women who, because of their age and sex, do not have access to assisted reproduction. Four reasons for why this kind of discrimination is morally wrong are then presented. In the main part of the paper, three arguments in favour of the view that this kind of discriminatory/differential treatment is morally acceptable will be critically discussed. The arguments are based on the following moral factors: paternalistic reasons to protect women's well-being; protecting the interests of the child; and moral concerns about optimizing the use of scarce resources within public healthcare. The paper concludes that all these three arguments are morally flawed and ultimately that there should be no age limits for women's access to assisted reproduction because such rules are both examples of morally problematic age and sex discrimination.