Ross Douthat of the New York Times comments on the impact sperm and egg donation has on the children conceived by such donations: The Birds and the Bees (via the Fertility Clinic).
I’m going to quote Ellen Painter Dollar’s summary of his article, and I also recommend her comments:
“New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote yesterday about a new study of adults who were conceived via sperm donation. Douthat focuses on two complementary ideas revealed by the study: 1) Fertility medicine is an industry and a marketplace, governed more by who is willing pay for what, than by what is best for the children conceived. In this way, fertility medicine differs significantly from adoption, which, while it too raises ethical issues related to wealth and wanting, is much more regulated than assisted reproduction, and oriented more toward what is best for the children involved rather than the parents’ desires. 2) Sperm donor anonymity appears to affect some donor children significantly. While many adults conceived in this way are supportive, in general, of assisted reproduction, they are also “haunted by the feeling of being a bought-and-paid-for child.” They also experience more alienation and questions around their identity than either biological or adopted children.”
Click here to read more from Ellen. Her response to the article is called, “On Existing for ‘Other People’s Purposes’.”
John Leland, of the New York Times, provided a summary of recent changes to abortion laws on a state level: “Abortion Foes Advance Cause at State Level.” The article doesn’t make sweeping judgements about abortion, but it does provide a window into the various ethical issues surrounding abortion in our nation. I was struck by the final sentences: “Over all, abortions in America have been falling since 1990. In recent years, according to research by the Guttmacher Institute, they have been increasingly concentrated among poor women, whose rates have gone up even as the overall national rate has declined.”
Finally,I’ve found myself zoned out for much of this round of Catholic Church sex scandal news, but the cover story of TIME magazine this week offers a helpful summary and reflection upon the theological, historical and social challenges facing Pope Benedict: “The Trial of Pope Benedict XVI.”
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