{"id":1385,"date":"2005-03-01T04:33:36","date_gmt":"2005-03-01T12:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/03\/01\/donor-conception-should-it-be-egal-for-straight-couples-only\/"},"modified":"2005-03-01T04:33:36","modified_gmt":"2005-03-01T12:33:36","slug":"donor-conception-should-it-be-egal-for-straight-couples-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1385","title":{"rendered":"Donor conception – should it be legal for straight couples only?"},"content":{"rendered":"

And yet more from that “Family Scholars” thread: Marty<\/a>, attempting to explain why he feels compassion for straight, married, infertile couples who want children – but not same-sex couples or single women – writes:<\/p>\n

A married man and a married woman “\u201c one of whom is physically disabled and unable to bear children “\u201c probably bear the same ethical burden as any other person considering IVF. But they earn much more compassion from society because a) one is physically broken, and b) they ARE still a mother and father “\u201c an exact (albeit genetically imperfect) model of the family union that created each of us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My first reaction is, “compassion” is not a zero-sum game. Certainly, we can have compassion for a op-sex couple unable to bear children; but that doesn’t mean that we can’t also have compassion for a single woman, or a same-sex couple. (Just because Marty feels no compassion for same-sex couples doesn’t oblige me, or the rest of society, to follow his lead.)<\/p>\n

I also have some problems with the implications of “compassion” when talking about “broken” people (and I’m not happy with the word “broken,” either). Making “compassion” the primary reason society allows infertile couples to seek alternatives seems warped, in a “Jerry’s kids” sort of way. Suppose that an infertile, hetero, married couple wanted to have children, not because they love and value children, but as a status symbol, or to preserve an inheritance? I’d have a hard time feeling “compassion” for such a couple, but I don’t think that should take away their legal rights to have children.<\/p>\n

I think that allowing people – rather than the government, and rather than circumstances such as being physically infertile or being part of a same-sex couple – to decide for themselves<\/em> when, and if, to have children is a cornerstone of human freedom and dignity. Since increasing human freedom and dignity is a good thing, insofar as reasonably possible D.C. technology should be available to all families that need it.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s harder to make an argument that human dignity should only belong to heterosexuals, and never to homosexuals. Which is why few SSM opponents will endorse my reasoning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And yet more from that “Family Scholars” thread: Marty, attempting to explain why he feels compassion for straight, married, infertile couples who want children – but not same-sex couples or single women – writes: A married man and a married … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-families-structures-divorce-etc","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}