I felt that the Religious Institute’s publication of "A Time to be Born: A Faith-Based Guide to Assisted Reproductive Technologies" did not address the issues of the "donor conceived" and might benefit from further dialogue with the donor conception community.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE PUBLISHES FAITH-BASED GUIDE TO ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/pressreleases/religious_institute…
My thoughts that I had in exchange with a member of the "Religious Institute":
"…these are deeply personal issues and I’m grateful that the religious community is attempting to address those deeply personal family building decisions but there is an equally deeply personal result of these decisions that effect the offspring which I feel are not being adequately addressed. We are desperately shouting into the wind. No one seems to be hearing us. I am hoping that the Religious Institute will help to make our voices heard. I agree that the faith community needs to support alternative families but, just as importantly, they need to minister to the offspring of those families. Unfortunately, sometimes there might be a conflict of interests.
While I understand your want to support gay and lesbian family building, I do feel as if a child’s/person’s basic human right to know, be known, love and be loved by all the people they come from and belong to (social and genetic) is being overshadowed/lost in the debate. The problem that I and many others have with donor/vendor assisted reproduction is that it involves socially condoned, institutionalized, commodified and intentional separation of children (who quickly grow to be adults with families of their own) from one or both sides of their ancestral connections (extended family) and identity that roots them within the context of our larger human family tree.
I am concerned that the focus on sexuality/alternative family building and the rights of adults to reproduce (heterosexual/infertile couples, homosexual/socially infertile couples or single/infertile/socially infertile) takes away from the human rights and deeply personal (identity/genetic connection/extended genetic family) needs of the children (who quickly grow to be adults with families of their own), within whatever family formation they belong to.
This is not so much a matter of law, which really cannot regulate these things – rather greater consciousness/awareness building which can help in these areas (one of the reasons why I reached out to your organization) – but the law can/should and desperately needs to regulate the sperm/egg/surrogacy industry, which several of the links I forwarded address in more detail. This industry is creating a form of genetic reductionism and as you can imagine, has deeply personal consequences for the offspring and society at large."
More:
(http://www.religiousinstitute.org/sites/default/files/open_letters/olona…)
Comments are closed.