146 R.P. Fitzgerald and M. Legge
operate within this framework. Since 2005 (the time period in which
the research underpinning this chapter was based), there have been key
events and changes in HART regulatory policy in New Zealand, such
as the enforcement of the maximum permissible time limit on fro-
zen embryo storage, along with the continual development of exper-
tise in new scientific techniques within New Zealand clinics such as
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD).^4 A further ongoing and
uniquely New Zealand feature of HART governance is the national
database called the HART Register ( 2016 ). This register allows children
resulting from various gamete donations to access information about
the origin of their genetic identity after they turn 18. In summary, the
New Zealand HART Act is one of the most liberal and comprehensive
national regulatory frameworks for IVF, particularly given the manner
in which access to HART is also influenced by decisions from the New
Zealand’s Human Rights Commission.
Regardless of changes in technology and regulatory frameworks, cer-
tain core elements of the practice of embryology and other elements of
biological science make working as a reproductive scientist an ongoing
ethical endeavour. These core elements of an everyday ethical practice
emerged as strongly in the newly trained scientists with whom we spoke
at the time of our research as it did for those with over 20 years’ expe-
rience in HART. The careers of these experienced workers developed
from highly specialised, brilliant and somewhat idiosyncratic experi-
mental work, to a strongly bureaucratised, highly focused, quality man-
aged, complex scientific process (Fitzgerald et al. 2013a, b). Throughout
these changes to everyday practice, the generally accepted marker of a
‘good’ embryologist in New Zealand has changed very little. Those ele-
ments of the ‘good worker’ that combine to make one’s everyday work-
ing life an ethical practice are set out below. Our work contributes to
studies of scientific providers of IVF, which are few in number (Erhich
et al. 2007 ; Williams et al. 2007 ; Zeiler 2007 ; Fitzgerald et al. 2015 )
but which offer rich arenas for exploring ethical complexity.
http://www.ebook3000.com