DE Mom on Public Perceptions Of Third Party Reproduction 1.14.11

From Beatrice......Hi Sara, I read your most recent blog post (Don't Ask, Don't Tell).  I then went online and read the NY TIMES Magazine article about the Twiblings and its follow up article by the same author.  Next I read the comments from readers about both stories.  WOW.  Now I see what the negative feedback is that you get from some people.   The comments seemed to be either for or against third party reproduction.  But when I take a step back, doesn’t this reflect our political views as well?   You are either conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, for Obama or for McCain/Palin/Romney, etc.?   Myself, I am what I’d call moderate, neither conservative nor liberal, but somewhere in between.  I am liberal when it comes to social issues and conservative when it comes to financial issues.   I don’t think you can make conservative people believe in third party reproduction.  You are beating a dead horse.  What I think you can succeed at, is educating the young people.   Our future political and reproductive views lie in the young.  If you want the public at large to view third party reproduction in a favorable light, suggest to your kids one day that they stand up in front of their class and do a speech about their road to life.   I am hoping that Brendon does that one day.  Somehow, I think he will.  Personally, I think sex-ed in the classroom needs to cover a woman’s reproductive life and explain that it is limited.  The media has done a good job of making it look easy to have a baby over age 40, and it is not the fault of the celebrities.  Mariah Carey, SJP, Kelly Preston, Celine Dion and the scores of other celebrities deserve their privacy when it comes to their own reproduction.  Older women want to feel and appear youthful, we don’t want to look old, do we?   It makes us feel good to see older women reproduce.  The media feeds on that and profits from it by reporting on the over 40 crowd and their pregnancies.  So, Sara, my main opinion about your blogpost is that you should not take it personally when others do not share your opinions on third party reproduction......


Thanks to Beatrice for writing in. I hope there really won't be a need for Third Party Reproduction and ART in the future, but I hope my girls grow up to be healthy and strong, smart and caring, and great egg donors too if they want to be.