Posted on 12/18/2006 5:26:26 AM PST by shrinkermd
...I'm 18, and for most of my life, I haven't known half my origins...
...That part came from my father. The only thing was, I had never met him, never heard any stories about him, never seen a picture of him. I didn't know his name. My mother never talked about him -- because she didn't have a clue who he was.
When she was 32, my mother -- single, and worried that she might never marry and have a family -- allowed a doctor wearing rubber gloves to inject a syringe of sperm from an unknown man into her uterus so that she could have a baby. I am the result: a donor-conceived child....
...I was angry at the idea that where donor conception is concerned, everyone focuses on the "parents" -- the adults who can make choices about their own lives. The recipient gets sympathy for wanting to have a child. The donor gets a guarantee of anonymity and absolution from any responsibility for the offspring of his "donation." As long as these adults are happy, then donor conception is a success, right?
Not so. The children born of these transactions are people, too. Those of us in the first documented generation of donor babies -- conceived in the late 1980s and early '90s, when sperm banks became more common and donor insemination began to flourish.. I'm here to tell you that emotionally, many of us are not keeping up. We didn't ask to be born into this situation, with its limitations and confusion. It's hypocritical of parents and medical professionals to assume that biological roots won't matter to the "products" of the cryobanks' service, when the longing for a biological relationship is what brings customers to the banks in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Why has no one answered my ad!
I've offered to be a surrogate father!
I don't call encouraging single parents to deliberately create kids to satisfy their own needs a kind act. As you obviously know, there are already plenty of children out there who need good homes and have had to deal with absent parents.
Each child will react differently, but it was hard on my sister, and it appears from the article it was hard on this young lady.
Ad
LOL!!
There were some scientists who merged two female eggs to form a viable embryo. I don't remember the species.
I didn't realize I was encouraging single women to do this, I was just encouraging kids with only one parent (for whatever reason)to suck it up and appreciate the fact that they had one person to love them. There are plenty of children who no one loves.
And even chose the circumstances ?
It's an interesting idea to consider.
From their website....
Gallaudet University leads the world in undergraduate liberal arts education, career development, and outstanding graduate programs for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students. The University also enjoys international renown for its research on the history, language, and culture of deaf people.
OK, then I misunderstood your post. Mea Culpa. :)
;0) Merry Christmas!
Carolyn
"How is this any different from adoption where nothing is known about either parent?"
Well, going by the tone of the letter, he probably had an intelligent biological father, for one, instead of a drug addict or equivalent, as they are fairly carefully screened at reputable clinics (exceptions abound, however).
He also presumably had a mother who took very good care of herself while pregant, given that she wanted the child and did this on purpose and was free of relevant diseases at the point of coneception (otherwise she'd have been refused the treatment).
Oh, wait, these are good things.
Excellent.
Thanks for the ping, will check out the rest of the article later.
Pretty amazing how many jerks there are on FR lately (no pun intended...)
I guess they think that morality and conscience are not only not necessary for human civilization, but a handicap.
For that, she's the target of your contempt.
Her point is that people don't hav emuch respect for children's needs. Some of our posters amply prove it.
It's similar in some ways. An adopted child can long to know who his parents were.
But it's different in that adoption is usually a compassionate response to a sad fait accompli -- an existing child whose parentless situation is an acknowledged tragedy. And the adoptive parents are attempting, to the best of their ability, to supply what the child needs to thrive.
But in this case, the child was brought into existence into deliberate, intentional, designed fatherlessness. She was begotten via a commercial transaction to satisfy her mother's desires. From the git-go, the adult's wants were more important than the child's needs.
This is what makes it different.
This is what makes it wrong.
Nobody is purposely getting pregnant in order to put their child up for adoption.
She's not just whining and lamenting. She's a college studnent who's studying, writing, working out a constructive relationship with her mother and father, and getting on with her life. She shows ever sign of balance, thoughtfulness, and maturity for a person of her age and background.
So will Mary Cheney's kid...
Sarcasm>
Mr. President?
Every human life has a sacred dignity from the moment of conception; but some methods of conception are intrinsically de-dignifying; through the parents' mishap, fault, or failing, they fall short of what a human child has a right to.
We can welcome all babies, without saying that depersonalized actions ---- promiscuous sex, adultery, rape, prostitution, sperm-vendor, IVF --- are OK because they sometimes produce babies. To flourish whole-heartedly, a child needs a Mom and a Dad who are married and who love their child and each other. How radical is that?
Some babies are fatherless by chance. No babies should be fatherless by choice.
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