Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Born to American mom, in-vitro twins denied citizenship

Born to American mom, in-vitro twins denied citizenship
Should the in-vitro twins be given American citizenship? They do not have biological ties to America whatsoever, except that the woman was the gestational mother. So, the real question lies, does being a gestational citizen give the children that citizenship, even though they have never been to that country?
The woman is claiming that the laws are not keeping up with the technology. I would claim that if there is no biological connection to the citizen, then there should be no citizenship granted to the children. However, since in this case the children were the gestational children of the woman, they have a more legitimate case to be citizens. If by law we recognize that the gestational mother, the one that gives birth to the children, is the lawful mother, then isn't it logical that they receive the same priorities as children born from an American mother but are not from IVF?
For my media section of the website, I wanted to highlight how it describes the humiliation of IVF described in the news story;

“I have been embarrassed, humiliated, horrified, ashamed,’’ Lavi told NBC News.
When Lavi went to the U.S. Embassy in Israel to register her children, she said she was asked over a loudspeaker in a crowded room by an embassy official how she conceived the children.
“It’s an outrageous question,’’ she said, recalling the experience. She later left the embassy in tears after more questioning.
This sense of embarrassment felt by a satisfied user of IVF brings to light how women are still not comfortable with the knowledge that they have had to use ART. Clearly, they do not think that it is socially acceptable yet. Women reading this article contemplating undergoing IVF treatment may be more hesitant because they feel like they may be seen differently, and they have a reason to feel humiliated.
Along with this humiliation, new IVF users may shy away because they are afraid that the laws are indeed not keeping up with the technology. Not knowing how the law has adapted to new ART's can be scary for some, causing hesitation with having the treatments.
Soon we shall see if this situation gets figured out--whether children who are products of IVF in the future will receive citizenship of their gestational mothers.

1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure I understand your points in this blog. Is it embarrassment that is the issue or the citizenship question.

    ReplyDelete