Mother in Legal Fight to Save Dead Transgender Daughter’s (Her Son’s) Sperm

Mother in Legal Fight to Save Dead Transgender Daughter’s (Her Son’s) Sperm

Very weird story. It dates from three years ago, but I didn’t see it until today.

(Link): Mother in legal fight to save dead transgender daughter’s sperm

Louise Anderson hopes to use sample frozen at Glasgow clinic to produce a grandchild

August 26, 2020

The mother of a transgender teenager is preparing to take legal action to prevent fertility doctors from destroying her dead daughter’s frozen sperm.

Louise Anderson, from Stirling, says she wants to honour her daughter Ellie’s wish to produce a grandchild, using her sperm, an egg donor and a surrogate carrier.

The 16-year-old died in Forth Valley hospital in July after falling ill. Her cause of death was described as “unascertained”.

Judge Uses Slavery Law to Rule Frozen Human Embryos are Property in Divorce Case

Judge Uses Slavery Law to Rule Frozen Human Embryos are Property in Divorce Case

This is creepy and unsettling, for like, 54, 000 reasons.

(Link):  Virginia judge uses slavery-era law to argue human embryos can be considered property

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner’s ruling came amid dispute between divorced couple over frozen embryos

(Link): Judge rules frozen embryos are property in divorce dispute, cites pre-Civil War slavery law 

March 15, 2023

A Virginia judge cited a 19th-century law about slave ownership in ruling that human embryos can legally be considered property or “chattel.”

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner issued the preliminary opinion last month in a case involving a divorced couple’s dispute over embryos they stored together. The couple, Honeyhline Heidemann and Jason Heidemann, separated in 2017 and divorced in 2018.

The ex-wife is 45 and infertile due to cancer treatments and wants to use the embryos, while her ex-husband does not.

(Link): Judge uses slavery law to rule frozen human embryos are property in divorce case

by AP
March 10, 2023

Frozen human embryos can legally be considered property, or “chattel,” a Virginia judge has ruled, basing his decision in part on a 19th-century law governing the treatment of slaves.

The preliminary opinion by Fairfax County Circuit Judge Richard Gardiner — delivered in a long-running dispute between a divorced husband and wife — is being criticized by some for wrongly and unnecessarily delving into a time in Virginia history when it was legally permissible to own human beings.

“It’s repulsive and it’s morally repugnant,” said Susan Crockin, a lawyer and scholar at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an expert in reproductive technology law.

Solomon Ashby, president of the Old Dominion Bar Association, a professional organization made up primarily of African American lawyers, called Gardiner’s ruling troubling.

Couple Sues Fertility Clinic Alleging Wrong Sperm was Used to Inseminate Wife

Couple Sues Fertility Clinic Alleging Wrong Sperm was Used to Inseminate Wife

(Link): Couple sues fertility clinic alleging wrong sperm was used to inseminate wife

Feb 22, 2023
By Katie Kindelan

A Texas couple has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic and associated laboratories alleging their two kids are not their full biological children because allegedly, the wrong sperm was used during the in-vitro fertilization process.

Camille and Derrick Bryan claim in a lawsuit filed Feb. 8 in a district court in Texas that they learned through DNA tests last August that Derrick Bryan is not the biological father of their young son and daughter, who are both under the age of 7.

The Bryans’ attorney, Tommy Hastings, told ABC News the couple decided to test their children’s DNA last year after a pediatrician noticed a type of birthmark on their son’s back known as a dermal melanocytosis.

The birthmarks, formerly known as Mongolian blue spots, are most common “among people of Asian, Native American, Hispanic, East Indian, and African descent,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

(BARF): I’m 24 and my 85-year-old husband is older than my GRANDFATHER – but we’re looking into IVF so that he can be a dad for the first time – reporting by Ellen Coughlan

(BARF): I’m 24 and my 85-year-old husband is older than my GRANDFATHER – but we’re looking into IVF so that he can be a dad for the first time – reporting by Ellen Coughlan

🤮🤮🤮

(Link): I’m 24 and my husband is 85 — we want to start a family

by Andrew Court
Feb 2, 2023

A Mississippi woman who married a man 61 years her senior says she’s ready to start a family with her new husband — despite the fact he’s a decade older than her own grandpa.

Miracle Pogue, 24, met hubby Charles, 85, while working at a laundromat in Starkville in 2019, with the pair forming a friendship that turned romantic a year later.

Charles proposed in February 2020, and the couple went on to wed last summer.

Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

(Link):  23-year-old woman dies while undergoing routine IVF treatment 

A healthy 23-year-old woman has died while undergoing IVF after suffering the effects of a rare complication.

(Link): Woman Dies While Undergoing IVF

Woman dies while undergoing IVF: 23-year-old Indian mother suffers rare complication which sent ovaries into overdrive and shut down her lungs

October 25, 2022
by Emily Craig

A mother undergoing IVF died after suffering an extremely rare side effect, medics have revealed.

The unidentified 23-year-old, from Delhi in India, died ‘suddenly’ while doctors were collecting her eggs.

The woman, who was married for seven years and had a four-year-old daughter born naturally, appeared healthy when she went to hospital for the procedure.

However, her heart stopped beating when fertility doctors tried to retrieve her eggs. They were unable to resuscitate her.

A post-mortem revealed she died from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) — a complication that affects one in three women undergoing IVF.

I’m Pregnant With My Own Son’s Baby by A. Diaz – and Conservative Reactions to the News Story

I’m Pregnant With My Own Son’s Baby by A. Diaz – and Conservative Reactions to the News Story

This post has been edited after publication to add more commentary, links.

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I find these types of stories to be a little… gross.

I see that conservative site “Not Babylon Bee” has shared this news story on their Twitter feed – as if to suggest they find this gross and icky.

They made it a point to mention that the age of the woman in the story is age 56 (you can see their tweet embedded in this post below).

However… I am a conservative who has spoken out on this blog for years about how too many secular and religious conservatives have turned parenthood, marriage, and the nuclear family into idols that they worship.

A reminder: I am not “anti parenthood,” I am not “anti marriage,” and I am not “anti nuclear family,” but I have been long disturbed by how so many conservatives have elevated parenthood, marriage, and the “the family” to an unhealthy degree, even beyond what the Bible itself does.

Among many conservatives, Motherhood is falsely said or thought to be a woman’s highest, or only, calling by God, which leaves never married and celibate women (such as myself) marginalized, or infertile women marginalized.

So… I find it a tad hypocritical that any conservative outlet would share this news story as though it’s gross, since they’re not being consistent with their hyper- pro- nuclear family, hyper- pro- parenthood view points.

The “Not Babylon Bee” site, to be consistent with their idolization of motherhood and the nuclear family, should be joyously proclaiming, “Oh, how lovely, this older lady is pregnant with her son’s baby.” But are they approaching it like that? Nope.

It’s possible I’m wrong, and they are, once more, unfortunately extolling the virtues of motherhood (as if being a baby carrier is a woman’s only value), but  the vibe I get is that they think it’s disturbing that a 56 year old is carrying, as a surrogate, her son’s kid.

Either way you slice it, Not Babylon Bee’s take on the topic can result in being sexist.

(Link): I’m Pregnant With My Own Son’s Baby by A. Diaz

Sept 22, 2022

A pregnant mother is expecting … her own grandchild.

Nancy Hauck, 56, can’t wait to give birth to her granddaughter. “I never planned for it, but I am so glad I chose to carry my son’s baby,” she told SWNS.

The grandmother offered to become a surrogate for her son Jeff, 32, and his wife Cambria, 30, after her daughter-in-law had a life-saving hysterectomy following the traumatic birth of their second set of twins.

“I just suddenly had a feeling a few months after that I should offer to do it,” she explained. “I told my son, and he teared up and was shocked — I hadn’t even told my husband at that point. But he was really supportive.”

The young couple had struggled for six years before they welcomed twins, Vera and Ayva, now three, and then, Diseal and Luka, 11 months, via IVF.

Woman Who Unpopularly Decided To Never Have Children Reflects On It Now That She’s 85 Years Old

Woman Who Unpopularly Decided To Never Have Children Reflects On It Now That She’s 85 Years Old

I was never really for or against having children myself – had I married younger, I was entertaining the idea of having at least one kid, if I could’ve done so by the age of 35.

One of the things this 85 year old woman says is something that I deduced years ago: it’s a huge mistake for any woman to base most or all of her purpose and identity in parenthood or marriage (same is true for men).

If you build most to all of your identity and purpose upon being a spouse or parent, what do you do if you or your spouse are infertile, if you have an only child and he dies young, or if your spouse is abusive so that you have to divorce him (or her), or your spouse gets into a car wreck, gets cancer, or has a heart attack and dies? Or, what happens if your spouse develops dementia, which, in a manner of speaking, kind of leaves you alone?

What happens when your children grow up and move out, leaving you alone with just your spouse?

Actually, what I’m saying here is true of anyone – if you’re a Codependent, never married, childless person, you have the tendency to lose yourself in the problems and lives of your friends, co-workers, and family members. That will end up being a waste of your time or being a mistake as well.

(Link): Woman Who Unpopularly Decided To Never Have Children Reflects On It Now That She’s 85 Years Old

Even though an astonishing number of people don’t feel, and have never felt, the urge to become a parent, the pressure to have kids is still tremendous.

Any person who has made this profound decision about leading a child-free life can tell you it’s usually met in two different ways. One, people mutter a series of condescending phrases such as “oh” or “you’ll change your mind”.

Two, they actually take you seriously and instantly warn you that you’ll be lonely and regret it when you’re old.

Speaking of the latter scenario, one open letter on the ‘Childfree’ subreddit put this notion to bed once and for all.

An 85-year-old widow addressed the young people of this community, shared her experience, and proudly stated that she has zero regrets about her choice. Being married for 50 years, she offered her perspective and some validating words of wisdom.

“If I could go back in time, would I do it again? (being childfree), 100% yes. I would live the same life one thousand times,” the woman wrote. Her story sparked a discussion in the comments below, with responses ranging from kudos to appreciation. Scroll down to read the story in full and the reactions that followed.

For some reason, people who decide to lead a childfree life often hear they’ll regret it once they’re old and alone

So when this 85-year-old widow shared an open letter about her childfree experience, people felt incredibly validated

Letter from an 85 year old widow: My childfree experience and a few humble opinions

Dear Young People

I wonder if I am the oldest person to post on this forum? It was a young lady who told me about this forum and I have read many of your posts and comments for a few weeks. Many have made me smile. Some have made me wince.

It appears to me, many of you on here to validate your life changing decision.

Finding people similar to you is important and I understand the needs. So can I just say, from my experience, your decision is a good one? And if you want to know why I think that, please give me 5 minutes of your time.

I was married for just over 50 years. We bucked the norm and did not want kids. In those days we said “we are trying” for a few years than “we cannot have kids,” case closed. It was our personal secret. It was nobody’s business.

If we were honest and said “we cannot have kids, because we just don’t want them” the fallout with family and friends would have been tough for us.

Our 50 years in a nutshell was perfect. Good jobs, no money worries, followed our own interests and hobbies.

Had many friends and many lovely nieces and nephews. If I could go back in time, would I do it again? (being childfree), 100% yes. I would live the same life one thousand times.

UK Court Says Widower Can Use Late Wife’s Frozen Embryo for Surrogate

UK Court Says Widower Can Use Late Wife’s Frozen Embryo for Surrogate

(Link): Widower wins right to have baby using embryo created with his late wife

Landmark ruling allows Ted Jennings, 38, to use embryo to have child via a surrogate

(Link): Widower, 38, fights for the right to have a baby with embryo he created during IVF with wife after she died of a ruptured uterus while pregnant at the age of 40

May 5, 2022

An investment manager is fighting for the right to have a baby using the last remaining embryo he created with his late wife, after they spent a years desperately trying to have children.

Widower Ted Jennings, 38, of Highbury, north London, used his sperm to create multiple embryos with Fern-Marie Choya during several rounds of IVF treatments between 2013 and 2018.

He has now asked Mrs Justice Theis at the High Court to rule that it would be lawful for him to place the last embryo – which was created in 2018 and has been stored –  ‘in treatment with a surrogate mother’.

But lawyers representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said Mr Jennings’ application should be dismissed.

They argued that it would not be lawful to use the embryo because Mr Jennings’ accountant wife, who died in 2019, had not provided written consent.

(Link): UK court says widower can use late wife’s frozen embryo for surrogate

Ted Jennings said his wife previously agreed upon using their embryos if she were to pass

June 23, 2022
By Haley Chi-Sing

A U.K. High Court judge ruled in favor of a man requesting to use his late wife’s frozen embryo with a surrogate on Wednesday.

Ted Jennings, 38, had submitted his application to the High Court after his wife, Fern-Marie Choya, died suddenly in 2019 while pregnant with twins and did not give written consent as to how her embryos could be used following her untimely death.

The couple had previously engaged in fertility treatments, according to The Guardian. Choya later became pregnant with twins and died suddenly 18 weeks into her pregnancy after experiencing complications.

Conservative Site Daily Wire Oddly Promoting “Gay Parenting,” and Also, I Guess, Homosexual Male Couples Using Women Surrogates for Babies?

Conservative Site Daily Wire Oddly Promoting “Gay Parenting,” and Also, I Guess, Homosexual Male Couples Using Women Surrogates for Babies?

Well this is bizarre.

Conservative site Daily Wire has homosexual now-conservative, former liberal host Dave Rubin, hosting an upcoming podcast, or whatever it is, where he and “only- correct- twice- a- day” Jordan Peterson discuss the topic, “Gay Parenting: Promise and Pitfalls.”

You can view their tweet about that interview or chat show (Link): here (it’s also embedded to the left in this post).

(Edit: July 9,2021: Daily Wire Plus since deleted the tweet.)

I wasn’t on Twitter a whole lot today, so I guess I missed it, but from what I’m seeing on the accounts of other conservatives, Daily Wire originally had a different tweet up promoting this Rubin – Peterson conversation, but they got such blow back from other conservatives over it that they deleted the original one to put up this newer one with different wording (I’m not sure what the original tweet said).

Upon further reading, what seems to have happened is that the same Tweet was on the regular Daily Wire account, it got heavy criticism, so it was deleted but a copy was placed on the Daily Wire PLUS Twitter account.

I’m not sure, but I believe that Daily Wire is Ben Shapiro’s organization? Isn’t he a Jewish guy?

I’m no expert on Judaism, but from what little I do know, I’m aware that some Jewish groups are super conservative, some are moderate, and some are super liberal, but Shapiro claims to be a conservative – why would a Jewish guy who believes in conservative values, or, I guess, promoting conservative hobby horses like “The Nuclear Family” be allowing this on his platform?

Months ago, in one of his videos on You Tube, Shapiro (Link): balked at this biological man (“transwoman”) breastfeeding a baby, and rightly so, but he’s fine with two men marrying one another and/or two men having a baby together via a surrogate?

I do not hate homosexual people, but I can’t say as though I endorse homosexual marriage, or two men having a baby together via a surrogate, either. To do so seems to be an anti-Nuclear Family, anti-conservative, or anti-Traditional Values stance to me.

I do recognize that homosexual marriage was made legal years ago, so I’ve learned to tolerate it, but I don’t affirm it or validate it.

So long as homosexual couples don’t try to sue or harass a Christian baker, florist, web site designer, or photographer in to providing their services for a homosexual wedding, I don’t care what homosexuals do.

The Overton Window (link to explanation about that) has shifted among some conservatives in the last several years, to the point, some of them are congratulating a homosexual married couple over having children via surrogates, and now, they’re allowing a “gay parenting” show to happen on their platform AND they’re advertising it, WTF?
That’s not conservative.

Sperm Donor With Incurable Condition Who Fathered 15 Children Unmasked by Judge to Stop More Women Responding to His Online Ads

Sperm Donor With Incurable Condition Who Fathered 15 Children Unmasked by Judge to Stop More Women Responding to His Online Ads

(Link): Sperm donor fathered 15 children despite DNA condition

Excerpts:

May 31, 2022

A man fathered 15 children after advertising his sperm on social media despite having an inheritable condition, a court has heard.

James MacDougall has a genetic condition which means his children could have learning difficulties.

At the court hearing last week, he was told he would not be able to contact three of his children.

(Link): Sperm donor fathered 15 kids without telling moms he has genetic IQ disease

May 31, 2022
By Brooke Steinberg

A Facebook sperm donor fathered 15 children but never told the mothers he has an inheritable condition that causes learning disabilities.

James MacDougall, 37, fathered children with lesbian women through private donations advertised on social media despite knowing he had incurable Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to low IQ and developmental delay.

MacDougall’s identity came out in a family court battle in Derby, United Kingdom, after he applied for parental responsibility and child arrangement orders for four of his children — even though he originally signed an agreement saying he didn’t want contact with some of his children.

Modern Couples Looking to Start a Family Are Turning to IVF – Because They Are Too Busy for Sex

Modern Couples Looking to Start a Family Are Turning to IVF – Because They Are Too Busy for Sex

But so many of Christians told me, assured me, when I was growing up – in their magazine articles, books, sermons, and TV shows – that married sex is GREAT and REGULAR! I guess not, judging on news stories like the one below!

Look at how all those reassurances and promises I heard from Christians as I as growing up ended up being false.

(Link): Modern couples looking to start a family are turning to IVF… because they are too busy for sex, experts reveal

Excerpts:

by Victoria Allen
May 2022

Modern couples wanting a baby are turning to IVF – not because they are infertile but because they are too busy to have sex, according to experts.

Couples are advised to try to have sex around every three days to optimise their chances of conceiving.

But the pressure of being ‘always available’, checking emails out of hours and finishing to-do lists has left many people with flagging libidos and little time for passion.

The spare time they do have is often spent watching Netflix, experts fear.

The number of British couples turning to fertility treatment they do not really need simply because they do not have sex often enough to conceive naturally is thought to run into hundreds.

The Gross, Shaming Natalism Propaganda on Gab Platform by Its Rude Members, Including By Roman Catholics and Other Conservatives

The Gross, Shaming Natalism Propaganda on Gab Platform by Its Rude Members, Including By Roman Catholics and Other Conservatives

A few days ago, someone I follow on Gab – I was automatically signed up to follow that person when I joined the site, I did not choose to follow them on my own – (with Gab being a social media platform that is similar to Twitter) shared a meme by someone else called “Disco.”

You can view that meme (Link): here on Gab.

I will also provide a screen shot below.

By the way, I am not as familiar with Gab’s functions and commenting as I am with Twitter’s, so I am not quite sure how to reply to people on Gab or how to link to specific comments by myself or others.

I am a pro-life conservative.

I am not opposed to equal rights for women, but I don’t identify as a feminist.

I don’t really fit in totally over on Gab, a platform which unfortunately attracts a lot of extreme right wing kooks (but some of the users seem okay),
but I don’t really fit in over on Twitter, either (where I was suspended for months previously before I got posting ability again),
because Twitter is over-run with far left “nut jobs,” most of whose views I normally do not agree with.

I have found that both conservatives and liberals / progressives are about equally annoying and wrong on the parenthood, marriage, or nuclear family topics.

Not all progressives or liberals are opposed to women having children; they just believe (and I agree with this concept, though I am a conservative) that women (and men) should be permitted to decide for themselves if they truly want to be a parent or not.

People should not be guilt tripped or pressured into having children.

There are some very fringe, far-out there leftists who are “anti nuclear family” and who are opposed to people having children, and they call themselves “anti natalists.”

I don’t agree with progressives who try to propagandize women (or men) from having children.

I don’t think it’s the progressives’ place to try to brainwash, scold, shame, or guilt trip people from having children.

But then I see the reverse dynamic from a lot of secular and Christian conservatives.

I see people who identify as conservative or Roman Catholic on sites such as GAB who keep pumping out these stupid, horrid, “Have ten kids by the time you’re 30” type memes or comments.

And these views are not even “biblical.”