Abstract

State regulation of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has been occurring since the inception of earlier technological advances such as artificial insemination to aid human reproduction. I provide a brief overview of the current regulation of ART in the U.S. and the literature on state regulation. Unlike previous studies of ART regulation which use content analysis or case studies of individual state laws I estimate ART regulation for the entire U.S. by using a series of random effects logistic regression models for the time period 1995-2006. To my knowledge this is the first quantitative analysis of ART regulation. I test the hypothesis that the demand for ART is an important predictor of ART legislation in the U.S. Other hypotheses derived from the ART literature were also tested in the analysis. Results indicate that demand for ART is the most influential factor in predicting ART legislation from 1995-2006. Additionally, educational attainment of a state's population and the percentage of married couple households with children in each state may have a direct effect on the demand for ART and an indirect effect on ART regulation.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

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