The Iona Institue are at it again. For anyone who doesn’t know, they are a collective of right-wing fundamentalist bible-bashing wing-nuts who have banded together to promote homophobia, hatred and general mis information about any issue imaginable. This time, they are claiming to be concerned with the rights of the child.
In an article published in today’s Irish Times, www.irishtimes.com, Carol Coulter writes that Iona say that
THE RIGHTS of the child must be paramount in any regulation of the assisted human reproduction industry (AHR), according to the Iona Institute, which promotes marriage and religion in society.
They have even
likened the plight of children conceived through the donation of genetic material to that of children adopted without being allowed knowledge of their birth parents.
They recemmond that
The welfare of the child should be the primary consideration in AHR; that children have the right, where possible, to be raised by their biological parents; that the right of fertility clinics to choose to treat only married couples should be enshrined in law; and that donor anonymity should be abolished.
You have to love that line. It would be shocking altogether if a woman decided that she wanted to raise a child on her own, or if some gay couple chose to use sperm donation/a surrogate mother to raise a child in a secure and loving environment. But no! Apparently the only way to raise a child is in a marriage enshrined in law!!
They also have opposed
the use of donated eggs and sperm by the AHR industry on the grounds that this automatically and deliberately deprives a child of the right to be raised by his or her own biological parent.
But they would be raised by a loving parent, does it matter if they are biologically related or not? And as an adopted person, with an adopted brother, a step grandfather (if you can understand that), I know what I’m talking about. Blood means sweet fuck all.
My personal favourite line is the following:
Ms O’Brien said: “We need to learn from best practice in adoption, and realise that what seems to ‘solve’ the problem of infertility, may have unintended consequences of loss and grief for children conceived in this way.”
Really?! Like REALLY?! This woman obviously hasn’t a fucking notion what she is talking about…
LGBT NOISE however have offered some words of reason in the article, thank feck!
The best interests of children conceived through assisted reproduction lie in having their families respected and protected. Continuing to stigmatise children born through assisted reproduction, particularly those born to same-sex parents, is a retrograde step. Surely what is most important is not how a particular child was conceived, but that that child is wanted, cherished, loved and protected.
I couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t matter how a child was concieved, who their natural/biological parents are etc etc, all that matters is that they have a parent/parents who love them.
Just my 2 cents.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1207/1224260241616.html
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