Mom gets ok to harvest dead son's sperm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30115186/

A judge just ruled in the mother's favor.  What do you think?

My personal opinion:  I think the mother is grieving, and she's gone about dealing with this grief in all the wrong ways.  The article doesn't say, but I'm betting that sometime in the past, mother and son had a conversation about him wanting children in the future.  I'm guessing that she doesn't get that he probably meant that he wanted to be alive when the children were created.  I'm betting that he probably wanted some kind of say in who the mother was as well.

My parents know that I want children some day.  But I never dreamed that I might have to sit down with them and spell out the fact that I meant that I'd want to be alive when this happened.

I think the judge ruled correctly - however I find it heartbreaking that the mother would pursue it.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ruling...I'm open to opinions on that one.  But I agree with you on the second part, kathy.

Doesn't seem that state law strictly prohibits it, and does allow for the harvesting of other tissue. He really didn't have a choice. His opinion that she would have no recourse because of the time constraint seems rational.

He was a legal adult at the time of his death and now his body is being used for a purpose not of his choosing.  (I really do not think it can be assumed he would agree to it if it's not spelled out in writing somewhere.)

If the judge ordered this because of the time sensitivity only, and the legal issue of whether or not his sperm can be used without his consent is to be settled later, ok.

If the judge ordered this because parents of dead or incapacitated adults are being assumed to have complete latitude in this area, then I don't agree with it.

Guess I better amend my living will to state that I do not want my eggs to be harvested for the purpose of creating a new person out of my genetic material upon my death or incapacitation.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

If the judge ordered this because of the time sensitivity only, and the legal issue of whether or not his sperm can be used without his consent is to be settled later, ok.

If the judge ordered this because parents of dead or incapacitated adults are being assumed to have complete latitude in this area, then I don't agree with it.

 This is the way that I was leaning as well.

I can totally see my mother-in-law attempting this if hubby and I had a horrible accident.

Then finally she can have those grand-babies we denied her with some pseudo daughter-in-law of her choosing without any nonsense like her son's preferences getting in the way.

I find this highly disturbing, and wrong.

He is not alive to give his consent, and what, what are you going to tell the kid that comes from this?

"We harvested your Daddy's sperm after he was DEAD so we could have you! You'll never know him, and we only wanted you to have a piece of him!!!"

No. Just no.

Dunno how the law works in Texas. Here, you may elect to be an organ donor, but it's up to the family how many parts they want to give away. I guess because this was an unprecedented request, the judge really had no choice.

I wonder if she has since found a urologist to perform the extraction?

The thing I'd wonder is where on earth she's going to find a woman willing to have an embryo implanted into her harvested from a dead guy.... ?!?!?!

I feel a scary book coming on - where's Bagga? :)

Original Post by kathygator:

I feel a scary book coming on - where's Bagga? :)

 You mean like a really scary book about a mother who takes it one step further and harvests the sperm, gets a donated egg and then decides to be the surrogate herself?

Original Post by peaches0405:

Original Post by kathygator:

I feel a scary book coming on - where's Bagga? :)

 You mean like a really scary book about a mother who takes it one step further and harvests the sperm, gets a donated egg and then decides to be the surrogate herself?

What a bizarre twist on "the circle of life".

No the spawn is all haunted and creepy because it was conceived from sperm from a dead man.....or...a baby born a zombie.

Yikes.

Original Post by kathygator:

No the spawn is all haunted and creepy because it was conceived from sperm from a dead man.....or...a baby born a zombie.

Yikes.

 So instead of being one of the un-dead....it would be half un-dead?

Her grief transformed her, no longer did sunshine reflect her shadow, only what now festered in her whithered womb, this seed sewn in the depths of insanity when born shall satiate its hunger at the throat of all mankind.  

YIKES! Well written - got goose bumps.

*ducks under desk for the remainder of the day*

Original Post by peaches0405:

 I'm guessing that she doesn't get that he probably meant that he wanted to be alive when the children were created.  I'm betting that he probably wanted some kind of say in who the mother was as well.

I agree -  otherwise he would, or should, have just taken his sperm to be stored somewhere "just in case", and made sure his family knew his intentions.

I can't imagine he just wouldn't care who the mother would be.  Jeez - unless he was willing, when he was alive, to let his mother choose the mother of his children, what makes her think she's entitled to do it now?

When hubby and I got married we both said we wanted kids, and even decided on a name for the first one (which we did use).  But it NEVER would have occurred to me that I needed to specify that I, that is, specifically ME, MYSELF, wanted to have, know, and RAISE those children - that I needed to make it clear that my desire to have children wasn't rooted in a desire to simply continue my genetic code.

Sounds like a mother doesn't want to let go and is taking it a bit far. 

Sounds like a fun family...

If this was his wife, would you all feel differently?

(full disclosure: I havent decided how I feel about it yet, at first, I though mom was planning on carrrying the baby... immediate yuck... but ...the more I think about it, there is some precedent for it and really the likelihood of conception is pretty low.  When mom gets a little more straight in the head, she may rethink it-- or it might be the best thing she ever did.  I think the law is probably pretty clear that the harvesting itself is not prohibited, but the use thereof might be-- but we will have to see how it all plays out.  If you are worried about egg harvesting, dont be.  We dont have the true technology as of yet to reliably use immature ova and proceed to conception.  Not to mention the "readily available and accessible sperm" factor vs the "is it the right time can we get to them very invasive and probably bad from oh being dead egg" factor)

I dont care if his mother is grieving or not, that is just wrong on sooo many lvls. Have they thought about how that could impact a child. I mean the child when grow up knowing that is dad never got to see him and never consciously created him. That can really mess with a kids head. It just sounds real selfish for the mother to do this, when you think about all those who could be effected.

unless it had been discusses [reviously between couples, I dont think a wife should even have that choice.