Unauthorized reproduction?!
Get pregnant through assisted means in Indiana when you're not married, go to jail. Yes, friends, it's the "Unauthorized Reproduction Act"! It would require every Indiana woman trying to get pregnant through assisted means--like in vitro fertilization or sperm donation--to go to the state and get a "gestation certificate." And you have to prove you're married when you get it. Hasn't passed yet, but I'm reeling that such a thing would even be considered by anyone in this country. I wish it were a joke, but it's not. If you're in Indiana, call your state representative and pitch an absolute fit. I don't care if you don't support single motherhood or lesbian motherhood or surrogacy or whatever this is supposed to guard against, this is totally no one's business let alone the state's and sets a very dangerous precedent. Is your blood a little chilly? Should be. Props to Ductape Fatwa at Booman Tribune.
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YOU. HAVE. GOT. TO. BE. KIDDING.
Jana
Would that I were.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
This is ridiculous
Wow. From my brief skimming of the document, it sounds like they want to treat "assisted reproduction" like an adoption (only you have to be married). Single men or women, gays, and lesbians need not apply, I suppose. Good heavens, this is ridiculous and I hope they vote it down ASAP. Be nice if a few state governments went a little further and got rid of a few other laws on their books--apparently adultery is illegal and punishable by jail time in Virginia (and yes, this has been applied recently). When I lived there six years ago, North Carolina still had a law against cohabitation without marriage (which was used to deny funeral benefits for a woman murdered by her boyfriend, since she was doing something "illegal" at the time of her death). And last year Virginia lawmakers proposed a law that would have required women to report miscarriages not attended by a doctor to the local police within 24 hours (which likely would also have required gathering a good bit of personal information about the parents, including whether or not they were married). I'm honestly not sure what happened to that one, but it was generating a good bit of outrage at the time it was proposed. Foolish and intrusive laws, the lot of them.
Speechless
So I will instead quote Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada from 1968-1979 and 1980-1984.
"The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."
Wow, Lynn, even I can agree w
Wow, Lynn, even I can agree with you on this! LOL! Unless it is for welfare moms. Then I can see it. But if it's not, that pretty outrageous (I don't feel like reading it right now. Bigger problems going on here).
Where are welfare moms going to get the money...
...for fertility treatments?
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
Lynn, I got preggo brain. I
Lynn, I got preggo brain. I don't think that far ahead. LOL! Just leave me alone.
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paved with good intentions
I read it and in its defense, they are trying to resolves some sticky issues surrounding assisted reproduction. HOWEVER, they are doing a lousy job of it. The sorts of problems they are trying to legislate solutions to are the ones like: Bob and Betty want a baby, but Bob is sterile, so they use a sperm donor. They have a baby who is biologically related only to Betty. Years later, Bob and Betty split. Then you get into all kinds of messy issues like, does Bob have to pay child support since the kid isn't biologically related? Can Betty seek child support from the sperm donor? What sort of custody rights does Bob have since he's not biologically related? All these same questions are there if instead of Bob, it was Betty who was sterile and they used an egg donor - or a surrogate.
So...while I think it is important to answer these questions, I don't like the married only exclusion. These same legal questions come up even if Bob and Betty aren't married or if it is Bob and Biff or Betty and Bertha. (Does Indiana allow same sex parent adoptions? If not that might explain the no contigency for same sex parents?) I also don't like the questions the "intended" parent has to answer. Basically, they make them answer the same questions they would have to answer if they were adopting a child - what's the home life like? what religion would they be raised? why do you want a child? etc And if they state doesn't like they answer, they can refuse to issue a birth certificate with the intended parent's name on it - thus denying them parental rights and freeing them from parental resposibilities.
BTW if you're doing in vitro and it is your egg and your husband's sperm, you wouldn't have to register.
heh
BTDT.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
Welcome to my state....Virginia *sigh*
Yes we have some of the DUMBEST laws. Not to mention communist taxes LOL. Since we are on the subject, Virginia has an oral sex law. Its illegal, even behind closed doors. Even if you are married. Even if its your own house. What should it matter to anyone what they do in their own home in their own beds? This is why so much of our tax money gets wasted, while we raise money in the schools for computers etc. I wish they would use the money they spent on these stupid studies for something worthwhile. *sigh*
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