Bio news (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 18:39:48 -0400
From: Mine Aysen Doyran <mine25.1@netzero.net>
To: md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu
Subject: Bio news


http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/06/02/embryo6_2.a.tm/index.html

                  When a couple divorces, who owns
                  the embryo?

                  June 2, 2000
                  Web posted at: 1:28 PM EDT (1728 GMT)

                  By Jessica Reaves

                  (TIME.com) -- It's a perplexing question, but one
                  befitting our increasingly scientific approach to
                  parenthood: Who controls the fate of frozen
                  embryos? According to a New Jersey state appeals
                  court opinion handed down Thursday, the
                  biological mother maintains a constitutional right to
                  decide what happens to embryos extracted during
                  an in vitro procedure. The case, which draws on
                  some of the most emotionally charged aspects of
                  life and conception, revolves around a couple who
                  conceived one child via in vitro fertilization and
                  stored the remaining seven embryos at a facility
                  that promised to destroy the embryos if there was
                  a divorce. The couple did divorce, and the
                  biological father sued for possession of the
                  embryos. As a strict Catholic who believes life
                  begins at the moment of conception, he equated
                  the destruction of embryos with the end of a life,
                  and decided to take the embryos back, apparently
wanting to have them
                  implanted in his new wife. His ex-wife fought his
case, arguing her right not to
                  have her biological children born without her consent.
And the New Jersey
                  appeals court agreed with her.

                  "Technology and science are leaping way
                  ahead of the law," says TIME legal reporter
                  Alain Sanders. "The law is struggling mightily
                  to catch up and to deal with these scientific
                  developments, all of which are putting strain
                  on the principle on which our legal system is
                  based, which is the notion of personal autonomy and
personal responsibility.
                  These new technological developments challenge the
idea of personal autonomy
                  and create a situation in which a person may no longer
control their ultimate
                  destiny."

                  In fact, it is the notion of personal autonomy to
which the New Jersey court
                  turned in deciding this case. The ruling calls on
language from Roe v. Wade, the
                  landmark Supreme Court case cementing a woman's
sovereignty over her
                  reproductive capabilities. And while the cases are
miles apart in technical terms,
                  they follow similar philosophical paths, and raise
equally fundamental questions
                  the problematic idea of "owning" an embryo.

                  In the end, however, such cases may center around
parental rather than
                  reproductive rights. After all, should a man faced
with a similar situation -- after
                  a divorce, his ex-wife decides to use the embryos he
helped create to have a
                  child -- be thus compelled to become a biological
father? Other courts
                  considering similar cases have ruled consistently that
no one, male or female,
                  should be forced into such parenthood without their
express consent. Both
                  ex-wives and ex-husbands have been barred from turning
embryos from their
                  former marriage into the seeds of a new family without
the consent of their ex.
                  And it would be a very big person indeed who could
stomach the idea of
                  donating genetic material to a union they may want
nothing to do with.


--

Mine Aysen Doyran
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222


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