This week NBC premiered its new fall sitcom, The New Normal, promoting egg donation, IVF and surrogacy. Here’s a trailer: While everyone’s hearts bleed for infertile and gay couples, what about the children created using this technology with anonymous sperm and eggs who are upset about having half their identity deliberately withheld from them? I write over at Catholic Lane: … Read More
Sorry, Cryokids, This is The New Normal. “Get Over It.”
In Must Not See TV news, NBC’s latest attempt at humor this fall will be The New Normal, a 30 minute sitcom about a young, single mother who agrees to become a gay couple’s surrogate mother. In the trailer for The New Normal, there is a scene in which the gay couple is speaking to someone from a fertility clinic … Read More
An IVF Change of Heart
Meant to post this last week. A rare case of ‘good news’ regarding third party reproduction: Dr Anthony J. Caruso is a Chicago doctor who worked in the field of in vitro fertilisation for 15 years before he quit in 2010. We interviewed him by email about the reasons for his change of heart. MercatorNet: You ran a successful IVF … Read More
Why Would Pro-Life People Oppose IVF?
People can be confused by the objection of the pro-life movement, and the Catholic Church, to IVF. Isn’t the whole point that we want people to have babies? Actually no. What we want is for the laws to treat babies like people. From Hilary White’s must-read article on how control over human fertility over the years has lead to the … Read More
Taxpayer Funded Surrogacy
This ABC News story reports on the increasing number of military wives who are turning to surrogacy as a way of supplementing their husbands’ salaries – sometimes even doubling them with just one pregnancy. The story is from 2010, but I can’t imagine things have changed a whole lot since then (and if they have, they’ve probably only gotten worse). … Read More
News Flash: It’s Not Just Eggs and Sperm That You’re “Donating”
The Tablet has an excellent article from Simi Lampert who explains why donating her eggs seemed like an easy way to make money — until she thought about her family and the fact that she was not only selling her eggs, but also, potentially, her biological children. She begins: I decided to sell my eggs. The notion got into my … Read More
The Catholic Church is No Enemy of Science or the Infertile
Because of her opposition to third party reproduction, the Catholic Church is often accused of being anti-science and insensitive to those who suffer the pain of infertility. Last year’s CNN Belief Blog op-ed from Sean Savage calling on the Catholic Church to reverse her opposition to IVF is a good example of the anger that is generally directed towards the … Read More
36 Year Old Virgin Has Fathered 14 Children
No, it’s not a miracle. Just the latest example of what a bass-ackwards, freaky-deaky world we live in. Trent Arsenault is currently being investigated by the FDA for running a private, one-man, unregulated sperm bank from his home. On Anderson Cooper’s syndicated television show last week, Arsenault revealed that, not only has he fathered 14 children (with four on the … Read More
The Injustice of Anonymous Sperm Donation: a “Cryokid” Speaks Out
For many people, third party reproduction is a great way to treat infertility (actually it’s more of a way of circumventing infertility than treating it, but whatever) and, for the most part, anonymous gamete donation is approved in order to maximize inventory as more people would feel more comfortable “donating” their baby making parts if they can be assured that … Read More
The Strange World of Assisted Reproductive Technology
Over at Headline Bistro Pia de Solenni has an excellent column exploring The Strange World of Assisted Reproductive Technology, a topic I’ve covered here on numerous occasions. So here’s the thing. If you’re looking for something to follow that’s strange, weird, and fascinating, forget reality TV or any other fiction. Just look into the largely unregulated world of assisted reproductive … Read More