What About the Children?
DUring the meeting
Questions
to guide group discussion:
- Do adults have the right to have a child? Does today’s society behave as though they do? How?
- Do children have a right to be known and reared by both their mother and their father? Is it ever okay to intentionally create circumstances to sever the bond between a child and its biological parents?
- Do you think that adults, in general, give enough attention to the needs and the rights of children? What adult interests have you seen that have been put before the needs and rights of children? (Consider things like unmarried child bearing, divorce, same-sex parenting, careers, etc.)
4. Discuss the bond a mother has with the child she is carrying. What does science tell us about that relationship? What, if any, are the potential consequences to a surrogate mother (traditional surrogate or gestational carrier) of breaking that naturally-ocurring bond?
What are the short-term/long-term impacts on the baby?
5. Is surrogacy and egg/sperm donation okay as long as money is not exchanged?
- Do children have a right to know their biological origin?
- According to the report “My Daddy’s Name is Donor,” children of sperm donors tend to struggle more in their lives to understand who they are and also are significantly more likely “to struggle with serious, negative outcomes such as delinquency, substance abuse, and depression, even when controlling for socio-economic and other factors.” Why do you think this is?
8. How do these third-party reproductive technologies (surrogacy, egg and sperm “donation”) affect the landscape of parenting and family law? What are some of the complexities that have evolved?
9. Should there be laws against anonymous sperm and egg donation? Laws against surrogacy? Should there be laws against all third-party reproductive technologies? Is this something government should just stay out of?
- If you are a pro-life person who believes that life begins at conception, is it possible to justify the creation and eventual destruction of excess fertilized (often frozen) embryos?
11. What rights might a soon-to-be-conceived child possess? If such rights exist, how should they be articulated and protected throughout the assisted reproductive process?