Philo's POTD 10-18-04

[philosophizer]

This is a couple days old, but it's good!

Originally posted by cattyfan
At the risk of angering a lot of people, I would add that I've always thought these artificial means of fertility were the height of selfishness. Not only do we have women having whole "litters" of children (and then many of them whining on shows like 20/20 about how hard and expensive it is to have quintuplets) but we have thousands of other children waiting to be adopted with no hope.

But the couples going to the infertility clinics seem to think their genes are so marvelous that their child MUST carry them on to the next generation. They can't "settle" for a child who is already here and in need of love...better they should spend tens of thousands of dollars so junior is "really theirs."

And in the process, we have all these frozen embryos just sitting there leaving us with the heartbreaking choice of using these tiny lives as lab rats, destroying them outright,or leaving them frozen.

The whole thing disgusts me. There are even court cases now where divorcing couples are squabbling over these frozen embryos...custody cases over a living being who is the size of a pinhead.

CONTEXT

 

[erinmarie]

This is a good post! Good job Catty.
I always watch the whining mothers on Dateline and 20/20 with the quintuplets, and I think gee, you'd think they would be a little more prepared for this, fertility treatements result in multiples quite often.
The other things that has bothered me about fertility treatments is that couples often lose one of the multiples, it almost seems like an abortive...knowing that when they undergo fertility treatments they may have multiples with the likelihood that some may not survive the pregnancy. I'm not sure if I'd take the chance.

 

[cattyfan]

thanks

 

[Turbo]

About a year or so ago I heard a woman on Focus on the Family who had adopted one of those frozen, abandoned embryos.

 

[cattyfan]

About a year or so ago I heard a woman on Focus on the Family who had adopted one of those frozen, abandoned embryos.

unfortunately most people won't release their embryos...for the same selfish reasons they had them made in the first place: they don't want someone else "rasing their child." I don't see how they think leaving the child in limbo is a better option.