Selling Embryos

       Over at Slate, William Saletan has a good, link rich, post about a woman who has created a business out of matching sperm and egg donors to manufacture embryos for sale.   I haven't absorbed all of the ethical implications yet but wanted to raise a point or two here.

      What strikes me about this whole endeavor is the desire to control and manage every aspect of human life.  It seems that we are losing our capacity to accept that some things, like the biology of child-rearing, are and, perhaps, should  be beyond our control.  Of course, in a scientific sense reproduction is more and more under our control.  We can make choices now about specific physical features our children will have; we can exclude disabilities, which is happening with increasing frequency; we can, if we want, shop for sperm and egg donors who have precisely the kinds of features we think we want.

    And that is what bothers me, at least initially, about all of this.  It seems that this sort of designer baby movement is all about the vanity of the parents-to-be.  They want a blue-eyed baby or sperm from an Ivy League graduate.  They want this, they want that, and their desires drive the production of a new child.  Is that what birth should be all about? 

    Or is birth about discovering the limits of one's desires?  Inevitably parents will have to submerge their egos and restrain their aspirations in the best interest of their children.  They will not control the situation completely, but be controlled by it.  And if they are not able to embrace and flow along with the tide of new demands and obligations, if they hold fast to their own desires and expectations, they likely will not be good parents.  So, why try to control every little detail at the outset, if the whole point of parenthood is the transformation of selfishness into selflessness? 

    I know: maybe that is not the best characterization of parenthood.  We obviously still impose certain conditions on our children.  We try to shape them into good people.  That is true.  But it is an incredibly time-consuming job, one that requires a turn away from self-interest.

      Many nights I step away from the writing I try to do to help my daughter with her homework.  I have to - and I want to - abandon something that I enjoy to take up something I must do.  Moreover, in helping with her homework, I cannot simply impose my way of doing things upon her (I have learned this the hard way).  I have to take some time to understand what she is doing, how she is learning or not learning, and find a way to interject myself into the process of her learning in the most productive manner.   It is not easy.  I have discovered my weaknesses in this regard and struggle to find ways of being better at it. But it is what I must do for her.  I must help her.  That's my job as a father.

    The prospective parents who spend so much money and time designing various aspects of their children-to-be will inevitably run into the limits of parenthood - the limits to selfishness and the demands of other-regarding activity.  How can they possibly know, at the outset, what kinds of physical features will be most helpful for the myriad challenges of parenting?  Will blue eyes make homework easier?  Will Ivy League sperm help with making friends?  Will their overly scientific approach to humanity ensure the happiness of their child?

    I don't think so....

Comments

[China Law Blog]

Right on!