« Home | Super Nanny » | Chicago is #1! » | Who would you call? » | Spring Ahead » | Book Worm » | Trust » | Eternity is Now » | Generation Y » | Pesos for Pizza? » | Subway Superman »

Parental Right?

[Photo by ghostbones]

I consider myself to be pretty open minded and objective, but I have to admit that I found this story to be a bit out there. An Israeli family has won a court battle that will enable them to use their deceased son's sperm to impregnate a woman he never met. Their son was a soldier, killed in duty, that was single at the time of his death. Two hours after he died, his parents had the hospital remove a sperm sample from his body. The man did not leave a will, but his parents argued in court that their son desired to have a family. Now that the court has granted the parents access to the boy's sperm, they can select a woman to be the surrogate mother of their grandchild.

I can't say that I agree with the court's decision, especially if I hadn't left a will. If I died before I had the chance to have children and before I had the chance to meet the person I would like to have children with, I would not approve of my parents taking it upon themselves to pass on my DNA. What rights do families have when trying to carry on bloodlines? Who has the right to make decisions about the use of your DNA?

Do you think that the grandparent's motives are purely selfish? Are they trying to replace their son by having a grandchild? Is that fair to the child? Who will care for the child once the grandparents cannot?

Posted by Angela on Thursday, February 01, 2007 at 7:38 PM |

/ponder

I do commend them for trying to fulfill something they think their son always wanted.. but I kind of wonder if having produced a child was his goal, or simply having a family (while he was alive to enjoy it :) )

Few things I've been thinking about.. it's obviously a tragedy anytime a soldier with a family is killed, leaving the spouse and kids alone to fight the world without them... but.. to purposely start out that way? To purposely have this planned-child grow up right from the get-go knowing full well the father will be gone for their entire life?

I wonder a little what the expectations are on the woman they pick, too.. would she have to live at home with the grandparents? is she expected to not marry anyone else? Will the father's estate end up being used to draw child-support payments?

And if you're the woman, what's the benefit for you? all the fun of parenting, without the pesky husband part? :) Who's gonna say yes? (or... erm, is this what you all want, and just don't have the heart to kill us off?)

The 'theft' bit of this doesn't personally bother me.. them using his dna for any purpose honestly doesn't truly matter to me... I'd be more concerned with what child's actual life would be a result of all this.. a life he/she certainly never asked for.

Posted by Blogger LV7 | 2/02/2007 09:32:00 AM  

Seems to me that the woman is purely a surrogate and probably will give up all rights to the child. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets paid for her "services."

There are so many questions about the situation, and, like you said, it doesn't seem that the ramifications for the child have been thoroughly thought through.

Posted by Blogger Angela | 2/04/2007 08:44:00 PM  

This is a very interesting scenario..I can see how perpetuating their son and having a grandchild would be exciting..They must have only had the one child?

They could donate his DNA to a sperm bank or pay a surrogate but in the end they can't bring their son back to life and I think that right now this is what they really want to accomplish...My heart goes out to them.

Posted by Blogger Romeo Morningwood | 2/06/2007 10:52:00 AM  

Post a Comment