What Price Baby Bliss?
For those that are familiar with my posts below you'll notice that my article on Mercatornet is stylistically different. That tends to happen when editors cut it down to fit into word limits and to make it more appealing to a certain audience. So some things are not how I would say them but the underlying message which is the important thing is still there. And that is that there are numerous costs, direct and indirect which can affect so many different parties that are involved in utilising reproductive technologies within a commercial setting.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/what_price_baby_bliss/
3 comments:
Hi Damian - Interesting Article. I especially like using the UN Bill of Rights. Have you done any research on what US laws might impact donor conception? I am writing an article on the recent Canada/BC ruling on sperm donor anonymity and would really like you input.
Cheers,
Girl Conceived
connectitblog.blogspot.com
Hi Girl Conceived,
great question. I must admit that my knowledge of the laws in the US in regard to this are no where near as good as it is for Australia and the UK etc.
There are a couple of problems.
The US did not sign or ratify the UN CROC (one of only 2 countries, which is a bit of an indictment on the US as it was the most widely and rapidly ratified convention).
Secondly there is very little legislation in the field of reproduction in the US. About the closest thing that you have got is the ASMR guidelines which provide a very poor framework for the practice (ie that are not enforceable). The rest of it pretty much flies under the radar and the main thing that I can think of that seems to affect it in the US would be commercial and consumer protection law. It pretty much runs as a laisez faire market place which is diabolical and just reinforces the commodification of human life. Although I am sure that there is someone much more knowledgeable than me on the US in this area who may be able to point to some legislation that may be in effect in certain jurisdictions (states).
You could possibly use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a UN document that the US signed. Article 7 states that everyone is equal before the law, which would provide a discrimination argument.
I think the same discrimination argument could possibly be applied to the US Constitution (everyone created equal with equal standing in the law).
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