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from Parenting & Family
Lesbian Couple Sues Fertility Doctor
For One Child Too Many
By Mike Hatfield
September 24, 2007 - A lesbian couple in Australia has filed a lawsuit against the physician at a fertility clinic for mistakenly implanting two embryos rather than one.
The lesbians are asking for $330,000 to cover the cost of raising the second child to age 21 and $12,000 to compensate for medical expenses and loss of earnings as a result of extended maternity leave.
The women say that their relationship has suffered from the stress of having two babies and the birth mother has lost some of her "ability to love." They decided against abortion or putting one of the girls up for adoption.
Bill Muehlenberg, a leading social and ethics commentator noted: "Evidently this couple wanted just one child, a trophy child, added to their list of wants. Two children were not what they had in mind. But there are no cash-back return policies for unwanted children. Given the overwhelming evidence about the need of children to have their own biological mother and father, to deliberately bring children into the world in other alternative lifestyle arrangements is arguably a case of child neglect."
This is not the first case of lesbian couples creating children to meet their own specific desires. In 2002, the Washington Post featured an article about two deaf lesbians who deliberately attempted to give birth to deaf children.
The lesbians, Candace McCullough and Sharon Duchesneau, described their success in giving birth to Gauvin, who is totally deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other. Their daughter Jehanne is also deaf. Both women bragged about their "turkey baster" baby.
They told the Post that deafness was an "identity, not a medical affliction that needs to be fixed."
McCullough has served on the American Psychological Association's Working Group on Same-Sex Families and Relationships. In July 2004, this working group issued a paper in support of same-sex marriage and gay adoption.
J. Matt Barber has analyzed this case and pointed out the dangers and flaws in trying to force an online business to abide by California sexual-orientation statutes.
Additional Reading: One Child Too Many: Lesbian Couple Sues;
A World of Their Own (washingtonpost.com);
American Psychological Association Endorses Gay Marriage And Adoption;
Parenting & Family.
Updated: 27 February 2008
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