The wisdom of Solomon
The lesbians only wanted one baby.
Remember the story of the two women who claimed rights over one child, and King Solomon had to decide the case? His offer was to cut the child in half and give equal halves to the claimants in order to determine which woman was the real mother.
Though the Australian case of two mothers suing because their in vitro pregnancy resulted in two children, when they only wanted one, is vastly different from the Biblical tale, perhaps the wisdom of Solomon is needed to throw such a ludicrous case out of court. Here is the story:
A lesbian couple in Australia are suing their doctor after they had twin girls from an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure when they only wanted one child.
The two women are seeking more than A$400,000 ($340,000) in damages to help pay for the cost of raising the second child, including private school fees, saying they had made it clear to their doctor that they only wanted one baby.
The twins are now 3 years old and the civil case, the first of its kind in Australia, has prompted debate about the value of children and the role of parents.
“The litigation involving twins already 3 years old undermines the importance of parenthood,” conservative government Senator Guy Barnett said on Thursday. - Reuters
“Colder than a witch’s teat.”
Or a lesbian’s. “Daughters, your mommies only wanted one of you.” That is just cold, isn’t it? Without going into why I believe same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt children, it is obvious no one can stop gay women from bearing their own children in or out of vitro. The question this case raises however, concerns the morality of selective births in general. (As Catholics we know this is immoral, clearly the culture doesn’t.)
Selective birthing.
People choosing the sex of their children, aborting them if there is any indication of physical or mental defect, selecting the correct number to be born in the case of multiple births, and so on. I think there is no clearer indication of the breakdown of morality in contemporary society than this modern parenting practice, which is only getting worse.
“It is also vain to desire children, as some do in upsetting and troubling the whole world with their longing for them… Christ says of these people, that they circle the earth and the sea in order to enrich their children, and they make them children of perdition twofold more than they themselves are. [Mt. 23:15]” - John of the Cross, Ascent III, 18:5
September 25th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Allowing homosexuals to experiment with the raising of children will someday be found to have been as criminal as Nazi medical experiments on Holocaust prisioners and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments on Blacks in the South.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Sadly, this attitude is hardly limited to gay couples. In fact, I would say that married couples have blazed the trail - seeking to abort one child in a multiple pregnancy, or suing doctors for “wrongful birth” after they have a child with medical problems or a disability.
The NYT Magazine a year or two ago had a column by a woman who aborted two of her three triplets (I believe conceived through IVF) because she didn’t want to have to buy large jars of mayo from Costco! (I am not kidding)
You’d think the parents would be deterred at least a little by thinking about how on earth they were going to explain this stuff to their surviving kids, but apparently not.
This is so sad.
September 25th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Can you explain the St. John of the Cross quote?
Thanks.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Susan, it sounds harsh out of context but he is adressing the issue of inordinate joy or attachment to temporal goods. He of course would not say the desire for children is wrong, the Bible is full of people who prayed earnestly for children. In the preceding paragraph he says the motive for rejoicing in children should be for the service they render to God.
It seemed to me the quote speaks to the way some contemporary people go about having children through expensive artificial means and other ways, often for selfish motives, while many raise them without any faith at all, to be as materialistic and self-centered as themselves.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Dear Terry,
You might want to add that the Church finds in vitro fertilization morally repugnant. It is a technique that was first developed “on the farm” in animal husbandry.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:24 am
Great post, Terry! I agree with everything you said. And the JoC quote is just perfect!
Ray, you make a good point–surely one day these social experiments will be proven as the horrible mistakes they are. Already, there are grown children who were raised by homosexuals who are crying out about the injustice of the unnatural lifestyle that was forced upon them, and their basic right of having a parent of each sex taken from them. They are the still, small voices right now. Give it a generation or two and their voices will be joined with a blaring cacophony yet to come. God only knows what affect the growing numbers of these children in society will make of things– we think we have a dysfunctional society now? Just wait. God help them and us all.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I noticed when I read an article about this very subject, that one of the main reason the lesbians were dissatisfied with the multiple births is because the one that gave birth had since “lost her capacity to love”. The “other mother” had begun to find her “partner” cold and frigid, and they both blamed it on the multiple babies (as if having just one would have made all the difference?). Perhaps if they win the lawsuit, it could set some precedent over why same-sex couples do not make good candidates for adoptive parents, etc. That’s logical anyway.