She's only a month old, and already her fate is tied in legal knots and international complications. Her biological parents are Japanese and birth mother (surrogated) is Indian. The child was born on July 2008 in Gujarat amidst the fear of bomb blasts. But a month before that, mother of the baby divorced her husband and disowned the child. Her father is keen to take the girl back home to Tokyo, but a law enacted 120 years ago is in the way which states a single father cannot adopt a girl child. Grandmother came to the rescue but she can’t take the baby out of the country because of adoption law.
Story goes like this - A Japanese couple desperate for child signed an agreement of surrogacy with well known gynecologist in Ahmedabad in November 2007. A woman from Ahmedabad signed an agreement to serve as the surrogate mother. The fertilization process of wife’s eggs with husband's sperm was completed in Tokyo and the embryo was brought to Ahmedabad. The embryo transfer was done in an Ahmedabad hospital in the presence of the Japanese couple. After birth, the surrogate mother stuck to the terms of the contract and left the baby and went home.
If the baby, whose nationality is Indian, doesn't get an Indian passport after the adoption process is completed, she may become the country's first surrogate-orphan, in other words an unwanted expensive child.
Look at that innocent face of the baby. Is she aware of the fact that science has created a complex world for her? What is her identity? Indian? Japanese? Who is her mother? The woman whose egg was used to give her life or the woman who nurtured her in her womb for 9 months?
Law stepped in to resolve the complexity but it worsened the situation as law does not allow a single father to adopt a girl child.Her granny came forward to take care of her but for how long can she stay in India to be with the baby? Who is responsible for this situation? A couple who desired to have a child and then deserted her? A surrogated mother who rented her womb for money? Or a doctor who wanted to show her talent and become famous? Or is it advanced science? Or is it a law which allowed (an unlawful) practice in the first place? What is the root cause of this complexity?
God created a beautiful phenomenon called birth. Are humans using it or abusing it? I firmly believed that there was a reason behind me why I was born as a female. God had certain plans for me and He left it on me to realize them. God has such reasons for having each one of you on earth as what you are. Why do you have to defy His creation? What do you want to show the world?
Beatie grew up in Hawaii as a girl but later legally changed to a male identity, took hormone shots and had his (her?) breasts surgically removed. Science helped Beatie to become a man, Thomas Beatie, but it could not change the very essence of Beatie’s being a woman. His wife Nancy was unable to bear children. Beatie became pregnant using donated sperm and artificial insemination. Nancy inseminated him with a syringe using sperm purchased from a bank and he became pregnant and gave birth to a girl in June 2008. Law again played a part of God, allowing Beatie who was a a man to become a woman.
When Nikita and Harsh Mehta’s 24-week fetus was diagnosed with a congenital heart problem they immediately rushed to court to seek permission to abort the pregnancy. The court dismissed the petition on the grounds that law does not permit abortion for fetus older than 20 weeks.
Mr. Law, I hope you are aware that fetus doesn’t have to wait for 20 weeks to get a life; there is a life in fetus from as early as four weeks. Then how can you dictate what is right for that life? Are you playing a part of God? Or you think you are a messenger of God?
I wish Nikita and Harsh would have believed in God and time. God knows what is best for his kids. Two weeks after the verdict, Nikita went through a painful ‘NATURAL’ miscarriage. God knew that it was not in the best interest of the unborn child.
Law and Science are to help us and not to destroy us. We must remember that nobody can replace God. He is the ultimate power.
Science may create perfect human being but can it induce emotions? Bernann McKinney lost her buddy Booger, a Pit Bull Terrier. She paid $50,000 to get him back. Five clones were born from two surrogate mothers in July 2008 using the dog’s refrigerated ear tissue. Bernann is happy to have her beloved Booger look-alike but she would soon realize that it is not the same pug she loved and missed.
I believe in God and think that there are certain decisions best left to him. Don’t you think human being is intruding the territory of the God? Science, research, discovery, innovation, and technology are to ease human being’s life and not to make it complicated. So is the Law.
What's your take?
4 comments:
Never thought on this before, till today, when after reading your article I realized that this has been all around in the newspapers and rest of the media. This is very intricate topic too. Personally I feel science is the way of life – it’s the paradigm by which I perceive this world and life on this planet. Also, law is the most important virtue that social scientists have put forward as it helps individuals live in a society – collectively.
But boy! Are we living in a perfect world? Haven’t we crossed the line and ventured into the vilest territory quite often? Scientific advances are supposed to support life, define the perspective through which we perceive this world, help us understand facts and make situations that are favorable for us and humanity in general. It has more than integrated into our thought process and changed our lives magnificently. Surgical advances are a case in point; eye transplants give new life factually if not physically, a mother who could not conceive a baby in 8th month of pregnancy can have a test tube baby now. But problem occurs when we try to shift science from supporter to creator orbit in matters of life and death. Genetic screening could be very good for humanity but it also has associated racial discrimination and related ethical issues. Human cloning, though may appear promising at surface, has so many issues associated that are challenging the existence of humanity and applicability of natural cycle and selection in general. The prospects of an ever growing society with whole of the human lineage – from Gandhi to Hitler and from Mayans to NY Yankees – seem disturbing too. I feel that one is more than just embodiment of muscles and bones and one’s clone would have different perspective and for that matter one is not the same person. The applicability of cloning in such a scenario is questionable. On similar lines we have been trying to alter the course of human life on certain cases that are questionable. On localized front those advances might seem productive but we can’t guarantee that they wont be misused when they ripe.
Law is used to codify our conduct in the society. The society evolves with time and situations change, based on that our thought process and conduct change too. Unfortunately we don’t revisit these laws, question their credibility and figure out if they have potential to protect our shared values and define the way we live in our society. Quite a bit of them are not as applicable in the current scenario as when conceived originally.
A more plausible approach would be that of discussion – we discuss to what extent scientific advances should overlap and impede upon natural processes, to what extent the laws should be applicable and under what scenarios. A consensus on conscience is the way to look forward and for that we need to get this discussion thread growing - thanks for bringing it to life! :)
We are using science to fulfill our greed. This is warning to our relationships as ahuman we intimate relationship is our basic need. Producing children mechanicaly (without emotional attachment) is possible but these produce will never helpmankind it will surely wipe out intmacy in coming generation.This seed will grow further will produce poisonous fruits for mankind.
add some more mad labels to urs
delete the above comment
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