Should fertility clinics divest themselves of pornography?

Some commentators object to the way in which fertility clinics make pornography available to men as an aid to masturbation when those men produce sperm for evaluation, storage or IVF. These objections typically rely on claims that pornography is generally harmful to women, unnecessary and dissociates sexual acts from conception. In light of these objections, certain commentators want fertility clinics to divest themselves of pornography, but these objections to pornography are not morally convincing. In general, pornography can have psychological value to men masturbating ‘on demand’ in clinical contexts. Not all erotica must, either, work to the disadvantage of women in its means of production or social effects. Moreover, the sexuality expressed in masturbation has a value of its own, and conception apart from sexual intercourse is morally defensible on its own. Divestment from pornography would do little to constrain the putative harms of pornography because clinics consume only a fractional amount of the total amount of pornography available. The provision of pornography is a defensible clinical practice, even if it is not absolutely necessary to all men in producing a sperm sample important to their fertility or their interests in donating gametes.

一些评论者反对生育诊所向男性提供色情内容以辅助其手淫的做法，这些男性手淫是为了提供精子用于检测、储存或体外受精。这些反对意见通常基于这样的观点：色情内容通常对女性有害，是不必要的，并且将性行为与受孕分离开来。鉴于这些反对意见，某些评论者希望生育诊所摒弃色情内容，但这些对色情内容的反对在道德上并不令人信服。一般来说，在临床环境中，色情内容对于按需手淫的男性可能具有心理价值。并非所有色情作品在其制作方式或社会影响方面都必然对女性不利。此外，手淫中所表达的性具有其自身的价值，而且非性交受孕本身在道德上是可辩护的。摒弃色情内容对限制色情内容假定的危害作用不大，因为诊所所使用的色情内容仅占可获取的色情内容总量的一小部分。提供色情内容是一种可辩护的临床做法，即使对于所有男性来说，在提供对其生育能力或捐赠配子的利益至关重要的精子样本时，这并非绝对必要。