Posted on 04/11/2009 11:25:28 AM PDT by Roger_Wildcat
DALLAS – Nikolas Colton Evans had talked about how much he wanted to have a child, but the 21-year-old died after he was punched and hit his head on the ground in a fight. That would have been the end of it, if it weren't for his determined mother, a court order and a urologist. Missy Evans has harvested her dead son's sperm and hopes to find a surrogate and one day raise her son's child. It's a decision that ethicists say raises troubling questions; one called the potential offspring a "replacement child." Evans isn't concerned about what others might think. She says she is only doing what her son would have wanted.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Where do all of these fertility freaks come from??
Ethics, hell, it’s creepy and wrong!
Whatever.
It is non of our business.
Yeah, its just too icky - I can’t believe they even thought of it.
Yeah. It's what her son wanted.
Let me guess whom this selfless mother voted for.
ML/NJ
If she has the $$$, “ethics” won’t stop her. The artificial reproduction industry is all about money.
Medical ethics is none of our business?
Evidently there are only ethical concerns when someone wants to bring a child to life.
Murdering millions of babies......no problem.
>Ethics, hell, it’s creepy and wrong!
Howso? Is it wrong to want a child? Is it wrong to want to honor someone you loved?
No, it is far more wrong to treat an unexpected child as ‘unwanted’ and to kill someone who had no hand in whether they would exist or not.
And how is it creepy? I should hope that when I die my organs will be used in transplants... after all, I won’t be using them after I’m dead. Is that [donating organs] so radically different from harvesting/using sperm? After someone is dead, they can hardly be made to account for the actions of the living.
One DEAD son
One grieving mother
One POTENTIAL living human being
WHEN DOES THIS BECOME EVERYBODY’S DAMN BUSINESS??
Sometimes, wisdom is keeping your mouth shut. Sometimes!!!
Sometimes, wisdom is speaking up. Sometimes!!!
True wisdom is knowing when to...... ?
“Sometimes, Mrs. Evans, it’s better this way.”
I don’t think it’s a moral issue at all. As long as the parents have the obligation to raise the grandchild, it’s none of anyone’s business.
But they don't. The father is dead. The mother would be a contract-hiree with no obligation beyond the delivery. (If that ... suppose she decide she wanted to abort partway through pregnancy? Would the courts uphold contract law over her "choice"?)
And the grandmother, who did such a great job with her son, could charge the taxpayer, like millions of other "parents."
Actually, it is our business. This woman’s son had no way of knowing he’d die young and that his mother would commission a surrogate to bear his children — using sperm harvested from his corpse. I would not want this done to me if I died prematurely — need I get a lawyer to draw up the papers that will prevent that from happening if I should die? Perhaps.
I agree. I’d rather celebrate life and someone to love and nurture it. The only problem I have with it is that there will most likely be left over embryos from the process that will either result in something like octo-mom or end up being expiramented on thanks to the Obama administration.
Did this young man explicitly state that he wants to produce a child that he’ll never see because he’s dead? I think not. He wanted a family, which is different then donating his DNA to be combined with a stranger to produce a child that will never know its father.
I have to admit if my only son died and I were in a financial position to freeze his sperm I would do it until I located a surrogate I wouldn’t hesitate to do it.
I can understand your points of view.
Is your son over 18? You should have him donate sperm for storage, in case something happens to him. That’s much cheaper than having it removed after he’s dead.
I’m sorry that she lost her son but IMHO this is NOT what her son would’ve wanted. He wanted to raise his own child with who he wanted to have his children with not someone Mommy contrated with just so she could have a grandchild. Big difference. If he had a wife and she was doing this it would be different, this is just creepy.
In this circumstance? Yeah.
Being brought into the world in an attempt to recreate another person is indeed skin-crawingly sick and creepy. This pathetic woman doesn't “want” a child and she isn't “honoring” anybody. She wants her dead boy back. For the sake of the Human Life she is playing with I hope she fails.
Frikin’ Stephen King novel.
Organs are a different matter, altogether.
I believe it’s wrong for Man to create a life through means other than the way God intended us to. Or, Mother Nature, if you prefer.
It’s creepy, to me, for a Mother to want to create her dead Son’s baby. I could understand a wife wanting to, not that I would think it’s not wrong, but it wouldn’t be so creepy. By my way of thinking, mom is in denial and creating a replacement Son brings that emotional state to life.
I didn’t read the article, did she also want to “fertilize that sperm herself?
It became my damn business when it was posted FOR DISCUSSION.
If you don’t want to learn others’ opinions, don’t click. Personally, I’ve found that some of my opinions can change by learning form another person’s opinion. Hence, the reason I joined FReerepublic.
Take your own advice.
I was knocked out and I’m still alive. Half of my vision was even fuzzy for about 10 minutes.
Did they scrape the bed sheets?
If there are no other, ulterior motives, such as an attempt at making a claim upon an estate, I see no reason to condemn what this woman did, out of love for her son, and a desire to see that he reproduced, and that she has grandchildren.
Morally, I can see why some don’t like it, and it could potentially open up some difficult situations down the road.
Just a question:
Is that part of medical ethics? Never heard of it.
A fair number of women have been impregnated with their dead husbands saved tadpoles.
I’m pretty much with you dear.
Funny to see how the forum is divided over this.
Wonder what percentage of the pros have kids and the negs do not (yet)
that was pretty mean and unfunny.
i assume the young man was on life support in a hospital and they harvest the sperm just like anything else
It seems that nobody wants to just deal with what life gives and takes away. In this case, it seems weird to me. No Father, a surrogate Mother. Just creepy. But I don’t know if illlegal or even if it should be. We can’t make illegal every creepy thing people do.
And the man saying he wanted children doesn’t have anything to do with this. He is gone, he will never see or love them.
On the face of it I would support the family’s decision to do it....but I concede it’s unusual.
But I’m pretty sure wives have done this already with harvested taddies from dead spouse.
Yes you did. I didn't even assume, I just asked a question.
About 15 years ago, when I was training in the hospital with the IV team to learn IV insertion , one of the patients I had was a “neurologically devastated” 21 year old who had a devastating brain injury. His mother was interrupted by a nurse on more than one occasion trying to collect her son’s sperm “au natural”, so that she could inseminate his girlfriend, and thus have a grandchild. I never heard whether she was successful...
While I am sorry for this woman’s grief, children are not commodities. They are human beings with a right to a mother and a father. This episode is another example of the selfishness in our society. Nobody is considering what is best for this future child.
No, you tried to be cute, it failed. Note no raucous applause.
Did they scrape the bed sheets?
Nope the poignant or pathetic (depends on your view) notion of a mother's dealing with her dead kid and no grandchild is a tough one to make viable locker room jokes about, but feel free ...here's your shovel Lenny.
There but for the Grace of God...
I would be inconsolable if I lost a child. It is a grief where you do what you need to do to get through the night. I cannot fault her. It is not something I would consider, but it is not my business or my grief.
Who is Lenny?
Am I the only one who noticed there is no mention of the dead 21 year old's own father?
Am I the only one who noticed there is no mention of the dead 21 year old's mother's occupation?
Am I the only one who noticed the dead 21 year old's mother said "This is probably going to bankrupt me and I will do whatever I can to make it happen."
The article mentioned an ex-husband (presumably the late young man’s father) and another son (presumably a brother). Although one never knows, in the modern “family.”
No living dad for the manufactured trophy-babe, and we may assume the taxpayer will foot the bill to rear it.
Thanks. I somehow skipped right over that paragraph.
Happens to us all.
It’s a shame none of the family members suggested counseling for her grief, rather than this unfortunate project.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.