The Impact of the Law in Helping or Hindering Fertility Preservation for Children with Cancer Facing Gonadotoxic Therapies

Abstract

Children diagnosed with cancer who require treatment with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy have ever-increasing survival rates. However, as a result of such treatment they face the added, and significant, burden of infertility into their futures. Options for fertility preservation and future reproduction for such children do exist, but some such options continue to be considered experimental. Collaborative multidisciplinary teams support children and their families to make decisions about such options in the treatment environment. When collection of gonadal tissue from children is consented to in such circumstances, it is subject to stringent institutional clinical and human research et..