Maryn Reyneke

I started my professional career as a Critical Care Nurse in South Africa surrounded by every monitor, pump, regulator, and beeping machine one could have in a hospital. Fascinated by human physiology and the technology we’ve designed to restore normal homeostasis, I’ve excelled in finding the balance of treating my critically ill patients and caring for them. While diseases and injuries have reasonably predictable outcomes and possible scientific answers to most of their unknowns, I was drawn to the questions that do not have clear answers. Questions like; when does life begin and end? When should we prolong life? When could and should we give life? As novel solutions emerge in healthcare, these profound questions at the beginning and the end of life occur most acutely when technology and human pathophysiology intersect.

 

Today, I have the privilege to be part of a Horizon 2020 project dedicated to finding ethically responsible ways to implement reproductive innovations (Project ERIN). Situated within the Cellular Genomic Medicine and Health Ethics and Society groups at Maastricht University under the wise leadership of Masoud Zamani Esteki and Guido de Wert, and in collaboration with Andres Salumets and Kadri Simm from Tartu University, I form part of the teams at the forefront of reproductive genetics and ethics in the Netherlands and Estonia. My PhD aims to explore the ethics of recent innovations in genome-wide reproductive screenings. I ask if the offer of genome-wide preconception, preimplantation and prenatal screening in public healthcare settings is ethically justified or even desirable, and if so, on what conditions? Also, what impact do the different screenings have on each other and do they still fulfil their desired aims?