Tuesday, October 04, 2005
As a follow-up to my post Postrel on the Anti-Science Left I'm pleased to turn the spotlight on the Moralistic Right. Media Girl reports on new legislation being advanced in Indiana:
I'll leave it to you to discuss why the Republicans think that targeting unmarried women who can afford an expensive IVF procedure is permissable but controlling the fertility rights of other unmarried women is out of bounds. This is almost like waving a red cape in front of a bull. A number of prinicples are being conflated here: 1.) The stability of relationships needed to raise a child is not only conferred by a marriage certificate; 2.) Single motherhood has negative consequences as we've seen with teen mothers, poor mothers, and mothers who don't provide a father figure for their children, but not being married while seeking IVF treatment does not necessarily equate to the negative social dynamics often associated with single motherhood; 3.) Opposition to lesbians becoming mothers when two lesbians committed enough to pay for, and go though an IVF procedure, are more likely to be good parents than many poorly dedicated married couples who accidently became parents. Note that the definition of "mother" would seem to include women acting as surrogates. The more of these reports that I read the more I think that the fundamentalist Right and Left should get together and leave the moderates of each party to coalesce into a counterbalance. See Turning of the Tide. |