Building a Baby, With Few Ground Rules

Posted by Kendall Harmon

On July 28, the Kehoes announced the arrival of twins, Ethan and Bridget, at University Hospital in Ann Arbor. Overjoyed, they took the babies home on Aug. 3 and prepared for a welcoming by their large extended family.

A month later, a police officer supervised as the Kehoes relinquished the swaddled infants in the driveway.

Bridget and Ethan are now in the custody of the surrogate who gave birth to them, Laschell Baker of Ypsilanti, Mich. Ms. Baker had obtained a court order to retrieve them after learning that Ms. Kehoe was being treated for mental illness.

“I couldn’t see living the rest of my life worrying and wondering what had happened, or what if she hadn’t taken her medicine, or what if she relapsed,” said Ms. Baker, who has four children of her own.

Now, she and her husband, Paul, plan to raise the twins.

The creation of Ethan and Bridget tested the boundaries of the field known as third-party reproduction, in which more than two people collaborate to have a baby. Five parties were involved: the egg donor, the sperm donor, Ms. Baker and the Kehoes. And two separate middlemen brokered the egg and sperm.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • Law & Legal Issues • Life Ethics • Marriage & Family • Science & Technology • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

3 Comments
Posted December 16, 2009 at 7:28 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Jeremy Bonner wrote:

Despite the good intentions of many of the people described in this article, it demonstrates all too clearly where IVF and its ramifications have brought us. Infertility is a terrible thing to live with (especially when so many around you seem to experience no problems), but this can’t be the way to alleviate it. There are surgeries and treatments (including Chinese medicine) that are frequently effective and yet maintain the basic integrity of the couple trying to conceive. We have to do a better job of publicizing them. 

Catholic and Reformed

December 16, 11:08 am | [comment link]
2. pressingon wrote:

Better yet, when it becomes clear that conception might not be possible, why not consider adoption? If one truly believes that God is sovereign and there are no Plan B’s, then adoption can certainly be viewed as God’s best thing, correct? There are thousands upon thousands of children already in desperate need in our own country. Why a couple committed to Kingdom values would feel the need to ‘physically’ create a child through much difficulty is beyond my comprehension when just outside our own front doors the need is so great.

December 16, 11:36 am | [comment link]
3. Jeremy Bonner wrote:

#2,

While I agree with you in principle, let me just say that there can be good reasons why adoption may not be appropriate for (or available to) some who are nonetheless committed to avoiding forms of conception that run contrary to pro-life principles.

December 16, 11:54 am | [comment link]
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