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from the Sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense dept.
Woman can use donor sperm in IVF without estranged husband's consent, court rules
A Victorian woman will not need her estranged husband's permission to undergo IVF using donor sperm following a ruling by the federal court in Melbourne. The court heard that the woman, who cannot be named, has been separated and living apart from her husband since late 2017. The woman wanted to try to conceive through IVF using donor sperm, but was told by a Melbourne reproductive clinic that under Victoria's Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act she first needed her husband's consent.
The matter was urgent because the woman is 45 and patients are generally only able to use their own eggs in an IVF procedure when they are younger than 46. The woman said she recently underwent a procedure to collect her eggs and freeze them for later use after she was divorced, but was told the prospect of a successful pregnancy using frozen eggs was lower than IVF using fresh eggs. The clinic told her that with her husband's consent, she could begin a round of treatment later in September.
[...] Under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act, there is a guiding principle that "the welfare and interests of persons born or to be born as a result of treatment procedures are paramount". But the court heard that this should not justify requiring the consent of a former partner who, without such consent, would have no responsibility for the child anyway.
Federal court Justice John Griffiths ordered that the woman could undergo IVF without consent and that the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act discriminated against her on the basis of her marital status. He declared that part of the law "invalid and inoperable". In his judgment published on Friday, Griffiths said nothing in his ruling was intended to harm the reputation of the woman's estranged husband and that the decision would not directly affect his legal rights, and that he would not be imputed with any parental rights, obligations or responsibilities.
See also: Parents likely to block girlfriend's attempt to access sperm from dead son (2016)
Related: Bioethicist Recommends Freezing Sperm to Lessen Genetic Risks
Divorced Couple Fighting in Court over Frozen Embryos
Medical Ethics of Multiples, Surrogacy, and Abortion
Deceased Dutch Fertility Clinic Doctor's Belongings to be DNA Tested
Japanese Man Granted Paternity Rights to 13 Children Born to Surrogate Mothers
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:07AM (7 children)
I agree with that bit of your post. The rest of it seems pretty meaningless. It's her life, and the life of her baby. If baby grows up hating mom for being so damned old she falls apart before his eyes, so be it. The kid will get over it, or not, and the world will move on.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:45AM (2 children)
It's Australia. Statistically speaking, the kid will be bitten, stung, impaled or poisoned by something before it gets old enough to hate it's mother.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @01:28AM
Calm down. The African gang problem is a myth. [abc.net.au]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:13PM
Yeah, but it will be an aussie kid. They learn to deal with that shit. Why do you think aussies are so fucking tough.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Sunday September 23 2018, @10:17AM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 24 2018, @03:07AM (2 children)
Easy, there, cowboy.
Morals are all relative - justified or not, the same can be easily said about you too (e.g. there's no warranty the kid will turn out as dismissive of an unborn child as you showed in your post).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday September 24 2018, @06:57AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 24 2018, @09:44AM
Even more inexcusable, I'm sorry to have to say that.
I have a good number of friends that grew in a what is called now a dysfunctional family**, friends who managed to get over and turned people I'm proud to call friends.
** late 1950-ies, country side in East Europe, a father mostly drunk and beating the crap out of kids and wife wasn't that unusual. Most cases, farmers who were expropriated of their land, assets and even homes by communists in the name of collectivism
Read what I wrote once again and, hand on heart, tell me that there is something which can literally be constructed as me considering normal a dysfunctional family.
What I saw in your message and called out is the apriori dismissal of a child potential. You aren't any kind of God to know how that kid will turn out and I refuse to believe you are entitled to cast any kind of value judgement on a child's future based on the traits of her/his parents.
My suggestion: life is a strange beast, respect it in whatever forms it presents itself to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford