Debate at Columbia Law School
February 21st, 2010
Here is a podcast of my debate at Columbia Law School on same sex marriage. Listen for my opponent’s dismissal of the feelings of the Donor Conceived Persons. I can tell you: a chill went through the room when she said that. Even students who generally support ssm were surprised and I sensed, dismayed, by her cavalier response. See what you think.
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“Reproductive technologies” and the use of “birth others” are here to stay for better or for worse. The “marriage debate”, although relevant, does not address the human rights needs of the offspring of these “technologies”. Which is why I believe that it is so important to bring public attention to the desperate need for industry regulations and public eduction, in order to protect the best interests of the children conceived from these interventions.
http://www.tangledwebs.org.au/
TANGLEDWEBS GROUP STATEMENT
TangledWebs is an action group, challenging Donor Conception (DC) practices in Australia & internationally.
Members have personal &/or professional experience that relates to DC or adoption. TW provides an alternative voice to ART through greater recognition of the complex, lifelong issues that affect the person created through DC. It’s our view that there are significant moral, social & legal issues that arise from DC practices that have intergenerational consequences for the wider community.
TW advocates equal rights & protection for all DC people, as defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We believe that DC practices throughout the world contravene the rights of the child/adult who is created in these circumstances.
TW is committed to ensuring that future legislation be enacted to provide all DC adults with retrospective access to information concerning their biological/genealogical parentage.
TW seeks to raise public awareness concerning issues of identity/kinship loss for DC people. We’re committed to ensuring that all DC people have access to adequate emotional, practical support to assist them with their life experience of kinship loss & possible reconciliation with disconnected kin.
TW seeks to promote the establishment of the Infertility Treatment Authority’s (Vic, AU) Voluntary Register (& similar registers in other states & o/s) encouraging DC offspring, past donors & recipient parents to register.
TW’s focus is on DC issues.
TW believes it’s essential to shift the focus of DC from meeting needs of adults, including donors, to defending the rights of people born as a result & protecting them from the intrinsic injustices of the practice.
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http://inodco.org/
The International Network of Donor Conception Organizations
All involved organizations support the following objectives:
1. End donor anonymity.
2. Track all recipients, donors and births and safeguard all records in a central, government data bank indefinitely. Information to be accessible by all involved families.
3. Mandate reporting of donor conceived live births from each donor.
4. Limit the number of births conceived with the sperm or eggs from any given donor
5. Require donors to regularly update their family medical history. Medical information to be included in donor data bank.
6. .Mandate genetic testing for donors and include genetic information in donor bank.
7. Push our respective governments to inquire into followup health histories of egg donors.
8. Require mandatory third party counseling for all prospective donors and parents.
9. Require legal and financial protection for anonymous donors so that they may feel safe to come forward.
Karen, i completely respect your POV, and what you are trying to do in the TW and DC communities. However, I believe you all are way too timid. I do not accept it as a settled fact that the use of “birth others” is here to stay. I do not accept that abortion is here to stay. These are serious injustices to unborn children and hence, I do not accept them as settlted fact. I cannot.
I agree that these practices are serious injustices to unborn children but trying to stop it would be like trying to swim up a waterfall. The venomous/aggressive attacks that would be (have already been) thrown against those who dare to speak against these practices – has made us a little gun shy – and yes, timid – to say the least.
Hi Karen,
It occurs to me that the best thing you can do about these concerns is be part of a larger group working on them. In that regard, I’ve emailed Tangeledwebs to ask if they have a US based organization or can put me in touch with anyone here who is working on creating one. Their email is info@tangledwebs.org.au. I’ll let you know when I get a response. My theory is that if you can support the efforts of a US based organization like this – and get others to do so – we might be able to get something done. In others words, you don’t have to do this alone! These technologies need appropriate guidelines and regulation and need the same kind of moral-compass questioning as stem cell research has gotten.
Oh, I also learned about http://www.donor-conception-network.org/
NATIONAL MEETING
Next National Members Meeting will take place in London 13th March 2010. Invitations have now gone out to members. The main topic will be connections with half-siblings.
I would email them at enquiries@dcnetwork.org and ask if they can provide you with a list of participating organizations from the US. You might, once you find out who’s attending from the US, get in touch with perhaps a few of those individuals and ask how they will be addressing these concerns at this conference or how they work to address them here in the US legislatively.
I hope this helps!