Thank you scientists. Now we get
to litigate and fight over children that aren’t even born yet and the laws are
not clear on what to do but science is rapidly giving couples lots of options.
A famous actress Sophia Vergara is going through the very same problem that
many couples are facing now in a battle with her ex-boyfriend over embryos they
froze together. Yes, for many now the
ticking biological clock does not pressure women to have their babies. Now they
freeze their eggs for a later time to raise a child. I call I convenient
parenting but there is nothing convenient anymore when the couple splits apart.
Who gets to decide what happens
to frozen embryos after a breakup? It is the newest type of custody battle but
it is also a matter of life and death. Sophia’s ex-boyfriend Nick Loeb filed a
complaint in a California court to prevent their two frozen embryos from
ever being destroyed. He wants those kids
to be born at any age with or without the mom involved. In November 2013, just
6 months before the couple broke up they used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to
create embryos planning eventually to use a surrogate. At the time both signed an agreement that the
embryos should be destroyed in the event that either one or both died but now
he wants them preserved at all cost.
Sophia has not agreed to that.
When you decide to have IVF with
someone you are not married to there are lots of agreement papers to be signed.
Most of the language in these contracts say that both of you have to agree. The
reason the contracts are so detailed and specific are because it is all about
life or death. With more than 600,000
frozen embryos in the United States alone, advances in reproductive technology are
outpacing the law and the courts are filling up with battles.
Another case is with Jacob
Szafranski who is waiting on a ruling from the Illinois Court of Appeals after
donating his sperm to create embryos with his now ex-girlfriend right after she
was diagnosed with cancer. They broke up but she still
wants her only chance of having biological children. The court ruled in her favor. He is being forced to have a child and be a
parent that he does not want to have and doesn’t want to be. Now all the
ethical issues are blown up. Should you be forced to be a parent even if you
don’t want to be anymore? According to one study about 4% of embryos are in
limbo. They are abandoned, or the
patient died or the couple split. Usually the storage fees range from several
hundred to a thousand dollars. Experts say an embryo can be viable for a decade
or more. Even the happily married find themselves torn as to what to do with
their unborn embryos.
A happy family decided to donate
their unborn embryos to Alzheimer’s research, the disease a family member
suffers from. All these situations raise complicated questions. Sophia may have
the upper hand with her lawsuit with Nick. The reality no matter how offensive considers
the embryos as property. When you sign
up for IVF, the specific contracts lay out rules and terms of what happens to
that property. As the contracts say,, If
they can’t agree then the embryos are considered abandoned. So, what should
happen after a breakup? Who has the right to decide to keep or destroy an embryo?
Yes, it is a new era in parenting.
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