Posted on 09/25/2007 7:29:36 AM PDT by NYer
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A lesbian couple in Australia are suing their doctor after they had twin girls from an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure when they only wanted one child.
The two women are seeking more than A$400,000 ($340,000) in damages to help pay for the cost of raising the second child, including private school fees, saying they had made it clear to their doctor that they only wanted one baby.
The twins are now 3 years old and the civil case, the first of its kind in Australia, has prompted debate about the value of children and the role of parents.
"The litigation involving twins already 3 years old undermines the importance of parenthood," conservative government Senator Guy Barnett said on Thursday.
"We seem more intent on preserving and pandering to the wishes of adults than we are in protecting the rights of children," he said.
Barnett called for banning same-sex couples and unmarried women from access to publicly funded IVF services, sparking a new moral debate ahead of national elections due within months.
The case is being heard in Canberra, where letters published in the local Canberra Times newspaper overwhelmingly criticized the legal action after the birth of two healthy children.
"The child's identity is subsumed to the whim of the mother who has bought the sperm and paid the IVF clinic," newspaper columnist Angela Shanahan wrote in the Australian.
"Ultimately the result is the child as product, robbed of its unique identity."
The court has ordered a gag on the identity of the women, who used donor sperm from a Danish doctor for the IVF treatment in 2003 which resulted in the birth of twin girls.
The court has heard that they signed a consent form to allow two embryos to be implanted, but specifically told their specialist they only wanted one embryo implanted.
The court was told the birth of the twins had created considerable stress within the couple's relationship, but lawyers for the doctor said that almost every couple who had a child went through similar strain.
Late on Thursday trial judge Annabelle Bennett adjourned the case for a month, when she will consider final written submissions.
But the couple issued a statement to hit back at critics, saying the legal action had nothing to do with their love for their twin girls, but was about the doctor's failure to comply
"This has never been a case about whether our children are loved. They are cherished," they wrote in a handwritten statement issued to media covering the case.
And I always thought children were a gift from God! </sarcasm>
How many ways can 2 individuals deny the words “natural order” of the universe?
I don’t believe my Creator had this in mind for human procreation!
Apparently 400,000 of them. (350,000 American).
They should ban such procedures in the case of non-traditional “family” structures.
I want to vomit.
Which child will go up thinking they were not wanted or will they both think that?
Don’t sign consent forms for things to be done to you that you don’t want to consent to. If they’d put it in writing that they only consented to having one embryo transferred, this would be an open and shut case (probably because the doctor would only have implanted one, and the second child wouldn’t exist, so there wouldn’t be a case).
I would have been ecstatic....
these weirdos are sick
Obviously it never occured to them to adopt one out.
The judge should ask them which child they are willing to give up for adoption...
Sometimes people are just so blinded with their own vanity that they cant even see the heaping of love and grace that God gives them. Even when we do the things he specifically tells us not to do.
Since the mothers’ names aren’t being made public, I doubt the children have been told about the suit — or will be, at least until they reach adulthood or close to that, by which time the mothers will have had plenty of time to demonstrate that both girls are loved and wanted.
How many ways is this wrong?
First, the lesbian couple.
Second, a lesbian couple wanting to purchase a token child.
Third, in vitro fertilization, which is unnatural even for a normal married couple.
Fourth, in vitro fertilization almost always involves killing and discarding fertilized eggs—which are unique human persons—in the process of choosing the ones that are used. In this case, probably they discarded the boys, and any defectives, to get what they wanted.
Fifth, with children you take what you get. Which of these twin girls do they want to get rid of? What will the little girls think when they are old enough to realize what has been done to them and where they came from?
Sixth, trial lawyers.
Between the lesbian mothers, the in vitro doctor who sells babies for money, the sperm donor, and the lawyers, I don’t find anyone to sympathize with. Only these poor girls, who will be lucky to grow up sane, given their “family” circumstances.
Daddy! I recognize you from the family album.
Ah, gratitude and humility, such wonderful human qualities.
That is the first thing that entered my mind.
Anyone as severely selfish as a homosexual would never stand for the combination of 2 total stanger’s genetic material; remember, it’s all about ME! (and, of course, the gratification of genetals in acts that have no consequences for either participant)
Why, they might turn out to be conservative traditionalist BREEDERS (gasp!).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.