Is there a right to parenthood?

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30Surrogate-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=all[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30Surrogate-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Is there a right to parenthood?</p>

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<p>I don’t believe this article has been posted on this site, but apologies if it has already been discussed.</p>

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<p>Why do you ask? I started reading the article but quickly lost interest. So, she paid someone to have her baby. Should insurance pay for this? No, no and no!!! Is that question raised? I think every woman who has the money and doesn’t want to go through the physical trauma of child bearing should be able to hire a child bearing surrogate on her own dime. Is there a right to parenthood? I don’t think so, but if you really want to be a parent most can find a way to achieve it.</p>

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<p>I thought it was a beautiful article, and the “right” to parenthood is not even an issue here. Alex obviously can afford to raise a child and she & her husband are thrilled to be parents.</p>

<p>I object when women on welfare, who already have children, somehow obtain fertility treatments so they can have more children for the taxpayers to support.</p>

<p>Or another case–some years ago I remember a young woman in a wheelchair (she had MD, I think) who insisted on a talk show that she had a “right” to be a parent and that she could certainly take care of an infant if taxpayers would only pick up the tab for assistants.</p>

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<p>Actually I wonder if the woman or man who can support a child, but can’t <em>afford</em> one if adoption or fertility assistance is necessary to have a child, have the same right to parenthood as the author of the article. In instances where one can’t necessarily just get pregnant and have a baby, is parenthood becoming increasingly limited to the wealthy… or those who are relatively wealthy? And does this bother anyone if it is true?</p>

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<p>Yes, fertility assistance is an expensive luxury. No, that doesn’t bother me.</p>

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<p>I wish more people who want to be parents would consider adopting a child who is already here and needs a home.</p>

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<p>Yes, it bothers me. I think infertility treatments should be covered by insurance. It’s so odd to me that the medical condition that renders me infertile should be treated differently than any other medical condition. </p>

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<p>I agree with this woman. If this woman cannot tend to her infant on her own but is otherwise a fit parent, then assitants should be covered.</p>

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<p>I think people who want to adopt should recieve a lot more help in doing it. I don’t think adoption should be expected of the infertile any more than of the fertile. </p>

<p>Adoption is a wonderful way to build a family but it’s not for everyone. Nor is everyone who wants to adopt able too.</p>

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<p>To explain more about the talk show woman in wheelchair: She obviously had no clue about what it takes to look after an infant or a toddler. She was going to put a little basket at the foot of her chair and the baby would stay in it. </p>

<p>Right. And just coo and smile at her all day. </p>

<p>Did I mention her husband was also handicapped? To me it was a clear case of people with enough problems already.</p>

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<p>Are children the ultimate luxury? Does anyone have a right to children?</p>

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<p>Well, we could discuss the fact that you need a license for a lot of things but anybody who can get pregnant can be a mother–qualified or not.</p>

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<p>People have a right to make their own decisions regarding childbearing. They don’t have a right to have children.</p>

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<p>Sounds like a lot of people before the baby actually comes home.</p>

<p>We don’t get to decide who has enough trouble already. Believe me, I sometimes wish I could when it comes to other people having children but we just don’t.</p>

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<p>While I don’t really believe parenthood is a right, I do think that everybody deserves to be SOMEBODY’s child. Adoption is a wonderful way to build a family and I wish more people would consider it and/or it wouldn’t be so expensive and difficult. There seems to be a bias against adopting, as if it is somehow second best (which of course it isn’t). I don’t think the stigma about adoption has completely gone away, even in 2009.</p>

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<p>I think OP’s question is too broad.</p>

<p>If you are asking, is there a right to medical treatment for infertility? Well, we already know the current answer to that, i.e., it depends if you have the cash or insurance coverage to pay for it.</p>

<p>If you are asking, does everyone have a right to bear a child? Obviously, men cannot do this and therefore cannot have this right due to impossibility. Women have the “liberty” to try. A woman does not have the right to force a male to have sex with her until she conceives, but she does have the freedom to buy artificial insemination treatment if she desires.</p>

<p>If you are asking, does everyone have the right to adopt? This will be regulated, or not, on a state-by-state, or country-by-country basis.</p>

<p>Or are you asking a different question?</p>

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<p>Is there a right to parenthood? No.</p>

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<p>Until a few years ago, in NY, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, allowed payments for infertility clinics. So people who couldnt support their own kids, and needed govt assistance, got govt help to have more kids. Unbeleivable, while many working people with private insurance couldnt get such treatment paid for. This has been changed.</p>