Monday, January 11, 2010

Continuing on the IVF theme

Lasttochance wondered how IVF could possibly violate the rights of as-of-yet non-existent children.

Here's an example: The issue of babies created through anonymous sperm donation.

Children want to know their backgrounds. What a concept. Many people wonder about their roots, their history. They have the right to know.

But nobody think about the children. What really matters is that the parents get what they want: a child. Don't think of the child's needs.

I love this line:

According to Guichon, medical students, and other young men who donated sperm for money, may not have considered the gravity of what they were doing.

“For some reason, people want to pretend that they are not procreating,” she says.

Of course not. Single young men in our age don't generally think of such things. The reality of the procreative power of sex only hits them once their girlfriend gets pregnant or when their baby is born.

We pretend like providing sperm doesn't create a relationship with that child. It's all made so abstract, so commodified.

When you're born of an individual's genes, you have a relation to that person. That connection can often complicate the family situation. We have to stop pretending like biology doesn't matter. It matters a lot.