This is progress? Modernity?
The boyfriend of a UK woman in her early 40’s had a heart attack and dropped into a coma. Sad, right? But it’s about to get worse. Even though he was dying and comatose, she decided she wanted his sperm so as she could have his baby. Problem is, according to the law they’re not married and she doesn’t have any indication of consent from the dying man.
But the court says that take the man’s sperm anyway. Mind you, this isn’t a pleasurable process. Now, you know those guys who’ve woken up from comas and said they heard everything for the past twenty years and felt everything. Well, let’s just say we should all pray this guy wasn’t feeling what they did to him to get his sperm out of him. There were surgeons involved. And cutting. Yeah, I know, right.
Imagine lying there, preparing yourself for your trip to the great beyond and then a team of surgeons walk in and start going to town on your business with sharp instruments. Poor guy. You might think that the law should protect the dying from this type of exploitation. But no. This is modern science. If we can do it, we will do it.
Now, according to BioEdge “she took the sperm out of Britain to an overseas IVF clinic, perhaps to Romania or Cyprus, where it is legal to use sperm without proof of consent.”
And she’s had IVF performed with the man’s sperm. No word yet on whether she’s pregnant. But surely, this kind of thing shouldn’t be happening. They weren’t legally married. She offered no proof of consent. And it’s a pretty darn painful experience for the guy.
Look, I know that this woman probably loved the heck out the guy and she’s going through a really bad time right now and she’s not thinking too clearly but shouldn’t there be laws about this kind of thing? And if there are laws, shouldn’t they be enforced?
I mean, where are we with the dying now? We can stop feeding them if we want to. We can ignore them to death. Or we can forcibly extract their sperm. Just because a human being is dying doesn’t mean they become means to other people’s ends.
August 21, 2013 at 2:42 am
That's what you do with meat machines. No soul = no human dignity = no telos = no ethic.
August 21, 2013 at 3:55 am
Seems like a logical extension of "harvesting" organs for transplant.
August 21, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Anything to empower women apparently…
August 21, 2013 at 6:04 pm
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August 21, 2013 at 6:06 pm
What about the man's right to his body? Or does that only apply to women?
August 21, 2013 at 7:26 pm
@Rick, clearly it's her right to harvest sperm since she wants it.
August 23, 2013 at 12:07 am
And again we see how the Men's Right's weenie is no different from the worst kind of feminist. If you see a "gender" issue here, you're as vapid an ideologue as some Women's Studies drone whose first thought in a rape-case is how it illustrates some theoretical model of "the patriarchy".
August 24, 2013 at 6:09 pm
Worship at the holy alter of science. Capitalization of the name of the holy god, science, omitted purposefully.
August 25, 2013 at 5:10 am
Rape the man for his sperm — reminds me of a scene in the movie The World According to Garp.
What about the deliberate injustice (growing up without a father) done to the potential child?
August 25, 2013 at 5:11 am
Rape the man for his sperm — reminds me of a scene in the movie The World According to Garp.
What about the deliberate injustice (growing up without a father) done to the potential child?