{"id":1569400,"date":"2022-07-25T08:05:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1569400"},"modified":"2022-07-25T08:06:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:06:08","slug":"as-reproductive-technology-advances-remember-just-because-we-can-doesnt-mean-we-should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-reproductive-technology-advances-remember-just-because-we-can-doesnt-mean-we-should\/","title":{"rendered":"As Reproductive Technology Advances, Remember: Just Because We Can Doesn\u2019t Mean We Should"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-reproductive-technology-advances-remember-just-because-we-can-doesnt-mean-we-should%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1569400&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Ever since the first baby was successfully born of in vitro fertilization in 1978, reproductive technologies have been hailed as a positive innovation designed to address the infertility issues plaguing modern society. What started as experimental solutions for couples who had difficulty conceiving naturally, however, has rapidly turned into a multibillion-dollar global industry that monetizes reproduction for all with little care for bioethics. <\/p>\n<p>Donating eggs or sperm, becoming a surrogate, or serially creating embryos are all scientific marvels, but they take a gamble on the meaning and responsibilities of reproduction, deprive children of humanity, and infringe on natural rights. At a time when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/a-quarter-of-adults-don-t-want-children-and-they-re-still-happy-5190690\">being child-free is praised<\/a>, it is worth celebrating that men and women crave the joys of parenthood. What\u2019s not celebratory are practices that deprive children of parents in very unhelpful ways. <\/p>\n<p>As noted by Them Before Us founder and Federalist contributor Katy Faust on a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/user\/10614200\/how-reproductive-technologies-often-put-\">episode of \u201cThe Federalist Radio Hour,\u201d<\/a> third-party reproduction sacrifices children\u2019s rights and replaces them with the selfish ambition of adults. That driving ideology, Faust said, is present in both abortion, the \u201cbaby-taking industry,\u201d and the \u201cbaby-making industry\u201d that is big fertility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth of them determine a child\u2019s rights based on whether or not they are wanted. In abortion, if a child is unwanted, you can violate their right to life and force them out of existence. In big fertility, if a child is very wanted, you can violate their right to their mother and father and force them into existence. But in both of these places, the adults are determining whether or not a child is worthy of protection of their rights simply based on what adults want,\u201d Faust said. \u201c\u2026Children are not commodities. They are not objects of rights. They are subjects of rights.  Children have rights, and because they are the smallest and most vulnerable among us, they especially need special protection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In one recent dystopian example of this breach of natural rights, Israel started allowing families, often wannabe grandparents, of fallen soldiers to request sperm be posthumously extracted and used to create children. Oftentimes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2022-07-19\/sperm-extraction-technique-turns-dead-men-into-fathers?sref=YfHlo0rL\">Bloomberg reports<\/a>, \u201cHundreds of women volunteer\u201d to help conceive and carry the child \u201cin a display of national solidarity and what seems to be a growing preference for a sperm donor who isn\u2019t anonymous and whose family will be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/neoscope\/israel-extracting-sperm-dead-soldiers\">\u201cbizarre trend\u201d<\/a> of \u201cplanned orphanhood\u201d is ripe for bioethics criticism and surely wades into uncharted legal territory but is still largely supported by the nation\u2019s legislative body, which voted in March to allow the practice to continue as long as soldiers agree to it before they enter the service.<\/p>\n<p>Similar situations have already crept into the United States. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2019\/03\/05\/their-only-son-died-unexpectedly-court-order-retrieve-his-sperm-means-his-legacy-could-live\/\">2019<\/a>, the parents of West Point Cadet Peter Zhu, who died in a skiing accident, petitioned a judge for permission to harvest their son\u2019s sperm. The mourning parents overlooked criticisms that welcoming a child from a dead father is not ethical in favor of \u201cpreserving some piece of our child that might live on.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Speaking of male gametes, approximately 30,000 to 60,000 children who were conceived with donated sperm are born every year in the U.S. A Harvard medical school <a href=\"https:\/\/bioethics.hms.harvard.edu\/journal\/donor-technology\">study found<\/a> that of the 143 sperm donor children who were surveyed, \u201c62.2 percent felt the exchange of money for donor gametes was wrong.\u201d An even higher number, 74 percent, said they \u201coften or very often think about the nature of their conception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndividuals experienced significant distress upon learning about the nature of their conception,\u201d the study noted. <\/p>\n<p>Whether children of sperm donors care how they were conceived, they can still run into a myriad of problems such as accidental inbreeding, especially if they are the product of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/serial-sperm-donor-from-la-will-soon-have-55-children\/\">serial sperm donor<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Without regard for the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/26\/big-fertility-harms-babies-and-women-so-why-are-we-celebrating-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">harms that come with outsourcing reproduction<\/a>, aspiring grandparents, celebrities, single women looking to fulfill motherly instincts without committing to a long-term relationship or marriage, gay couples, and anyone who wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/lifestyle\/4754827\/regret-having-kids-pregnancy-made-me-overweight-moody-exhausted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">avoid the symptoms and bodily changes<\/a>\u00a0required of carrying a baby have essentially unfettered access to the buying and selling of pregnancy, as long as they can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Not only does the fertility industry support practices that sideline kids, but they also sustain practices that teeter on the edge of eugenics. <\/p>\n<p>For example, one same-sex couple in California decided to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/losangeles\/news\/same-sex-couple-sues-fertility-clinic-over-alleged-wrong-sex-embryo-implant\/\">sue an IVF clinic<\/a> that wrongly implanted a female embryo in their surrogate, who later birthed a healthy baby girl. The men claimed in their lawsuit that they had always wanted a boy and explicitly notified the fertility center that \u201cthey wanted only male embryos transferred.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Many fertility processes also rely on creating a multitude of embryos and then grading and discarding those that are not deemed suitable, even though those \u201clow quality\u201d embryos can yield <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC5237322\/\">successful pregnancies<\/a>. Embryos that have met the subjective standards but are not wanted at the moment are frozen and stored \u2014 possibly to be used, as Bravo\u2019s Andy Cohen, an unmarried gay man, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/parents\/parents\/andy-cohen-donate-leftover-frozen-embryos-kids-rcna32354\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently suggested<\/a>, decades later by family members including the embryo\u2019s biological siblings. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what I\u2019m thinking \u2014 this is crazy \u2014 but if either of [my kids] cannot have kids, maybe in 20 years they\u2019ll\u00a0defrost their sibling and raise them. Is that a weird thought?\u201d Cohen asked. <\/p>\n<p>A \u201cToday Show\u201d article tried to reassure Cohen that \u201cno \u2014 according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.embryodonation.org\/adoption\/#:~:text=A%20fourth%20option%20is%20to,the%20birth%20of%20a%20child.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Embryo Donation Center<\/a>, embryo donation (either for research purposes or to people who desire children) is an option for those who are finished having children.\u201d The increasing push from corporate media and elites to normalize such an inherently odd and potentially morally objectionable practice is alarming.   <\/p>\n<p>While young men and women in America are committing to sterilization in protest of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s <em>Dobbs v. Jackson<\/em> decision, others are selling their bodies and gametes to an industry with little regulation, oversight, regard for children\u2019s rights, or understanding of the benefits of traditional marriage and family. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"AI2royeP5fH\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NBC News segment highlights young women choosing to have themselves permanently sterilized following the repeal of Roe v. Wade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After the decision was leaked, I decided to schedule the procedure sooner than I had originally anticipated.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bw5yUTr46b\">pic.twitter.com\/bw5yUTr46b<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomselliott\/status\/1549813026550734856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Reproductive technologies have been around for decades, but as their effects play out in society, ethical issues have already surfaced and will continue to do so. Just because science and technology mean we <em>can<\/em> do something doesn\u2019t mean we <em>should<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since the first baby was successfully born of in vitro fertilization in 1978, reproductive technologies have been hailed as a positive innovation designed to address the infertility issues plaguing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":1897802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/25\/as-reproductive-technology-advances-remember-just-because-we-can-doesnt-mean-we-should\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=as-reproductive-technology-advances-remember-just-because-we-can-doesnt-mean-we-should","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}