Concern 620 · Working draft · editorial review in progress
Reproductive and family-formation decisions
AI influence on reproductive and family decisions raises concerns when uncertain predictions are treated as instructions about deeply personal choices.
Understanding the concern
Fertility tools and clinical systems may estimate probabilities or organize information. Those outputs can be useful, but they do not determine whether, when or how someone should form a family. Personal values, circumstances and preferences remain essential, and a probability is not a promise.
Professional guidance on AI in fertility laboratories discusses specific applications and evidence needs. That does not validate every consumer app or chatbot. Clear explanations should distinguish a clinically assessed tool from general advice and disclose uncertainty and commercial incentives. People need space for informed discussion with qualified professionals when medical decisions are involved.
An example
A person interprets an app's estimate as a definitive instruction about their family plans.
Illustrative unless identified as a documented case.
Words in plain English
- AI
- Software that learns patterns from examples or uses rules to perform tasks such as recognizing images or generating text. It can make mistakes and does not understand every situation as a person would.
Evidence and its limits
The sources concern laboratory AI and truthful health claims. They do not validate consumer predictions or recommend a personal reproductive decision.
American Society for Reproductive Medicine · Professional committee opinion
Artificial intelligence in the in vitro fertilization laboratory: a committee opinion ↗ (opens in a new tab)Laboratory AI applications and evidence considerations; does not validate consumer apps for major family decisions.
Federal Trade Commission · 2022 · Regulatory guidance
Health Products Compliance Guidance ↗ (opens in a new tab)US requirements for substantiation and truthful health advertising; not an evaluation of a particular chatbot.
Broader frameworks and background
These resources provide context. They do not establish every claim in this concern.
A question to discuss
What should an AI explain so a reproductive prediction informs a choice without taking ownership of it?
Keep track of different views, what needs checking, and any next step in your own discussion notes.
Open discussion notes →Principles for the conversation
Before you finish · reflect together
Virtues and principles to consider
Virtues are qualities we practice in how we treat people and make choices. They are not scores for judging someone. Use these ideas to explore what a thoughtful response could look like.
Dignity
Dignity means recognizing each person's worth regardless of usefulness, status, or a system's score. People deserve respect and a voice in matters that affect them.
Explain important decisions, avoid humiliating treatment, and keep room for a person's story. Do not treat a prediction as a complete account of who someone is.
Ask together: Does this use treat each person as someone whose experience matters?
Listening
Listening means trying to understand someone's experience before preparing an answer. People who use a service, work with it, or are judged by it may notice problems its designers miss.
Invite people to describe what happened in their own words. Repeat back what you understood and let them correct it. A quiet person or a complaint that is hard to measure may still reveal something important.
Ask together: Whose experience have we not heard yet?
Seeing potential
Seeing potential means recognizing people's capacity to learn, contribute, and grow. It resists reducing someone to a score or to the tasks a machine can perform faster.
Use tools to support people's development. Give learners time, feedback, and real opportunities to practice. A prediction about someone's performance should not close off their future.
Ask together: How could this help people develop abilities they value?
Editorial ratings
These are editorial judgments from the register, not measured probabilities or predictions about your situation.
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