Dear Friend of the CBC:
Over the past two days we’ve tried to paint a picture of the brave new world of “family equality” that folks like Justice Kennedy and law professor Douglas NeJaime envision for our future. Well, we’re not quite done yet—because the world that they are crusading for will result in some terrible consequences along the way that we at the Center for Bioethics and Culture are committed to fighting against.
Take for example this telling sentence in professor NeJaime’s L.A. Times op-ed: “Fortunately, even though marriage equality doesn’t immediately erase all attachments related to biological, dual-gender child rearing, it points us in the right direction.” He goes on to note that in legalizing same-sex marriage, “The majority affirmed a model of parenthood based on chosen, functional bonds rather than biology alone.”
In other words, “family equality” requires that we forever diminish the significance of our biological ties.
So much for the children who long to know and be known by their biological parents! Farewell to the idea that biology matters—even for the sake of knowing one’s medical histories.
According to this notion, “family equality” must also come at the sacrifice of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since the use of anonymous gamete (egg and sperm) donation came into existence, an unknown number of children—easily in the hundreds of thousands—have been conceived this way. This has led to an entire generation of children who are severed from at least one of their parents.
How is that for equality?
These children long to know their biological parents. They suffer real psychological and physical harms.
This not a perspective that family equality advocates want you to know, but we at the CBC are committed to making their voices heard and their stories known.
In our 2011 film, Anonymous Father’s Day, we offer an inside look at the real experiences of these children who are trying to make sense of their lives and their origins, even well into adulthood.
What is it like to grow up not knowing whom your biological father is or if you have any siblings? What is it like to find out that the man you thought was your dad is not your biological father, that your true biological father donated his sperm and is known only by a number? How does it impact your self-perception, the choices you make, and your view of life and the world? These are questions that need to be asked, yet the movement for “family equality” demands that these questions be silenced.
We refuse to bow to that pressure. Won’t you join us in speaking out on behalf of these children?
If you want to reach your state legislators, a gift of $500 will put this important film in their hands. A one-time gift of $1,000 or more will allow us to send a copy of Anonymous Father’s Day, Eggsploitation, and Breeders? to each justice of the Supreme Court.
Thank you for partnering with us to tell the stories that must be told.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Lahl
Won’t you join us in speaking out on behalf of these children?
The Center for Bioethics and Culture is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit educational organization. All gifts are tax-deductible.
Author Profile
- Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.
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