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BY GORDON GUILLERGAN
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Thursday, June 29, 2017
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“Some congregations experiment with ‘artificial insemination.’ What do they do? They welcome…‘Yes come, come, come.’ And then there are problems, no. We must be serious about who we take. We must clearly distinguish if it is a real vocation, and help it to grow.” – The Pope
I JUST want a child. This is common with women these days. Well, not just with women but also with men. We live in a society where love and marriage seem to be a traumatic experience that people tend to flee from.
Flerida Ruth Romero noted in the Philippine Law Journal that gigantic strides made by science and high technology have made possible the manipulation of the procreative process in a manner that has astounded people, opened up incredible possibilities to childless couples and thrown the legal profession with its cherished presumptions pertaining to paternity and filiation all awry.
To infertile and impotent couples, artificial insemination has come as a boon that has raised high expectations and, for some, fulfilled their hitherto unrealized dreams of having a child.
The likes of Mariah Carey, Hayden Kho, Joel Cruz and many others resort to artificial insemination just so they can have children. Artificial insemination (AI) is the medical process by which a woman is impregnated with semen from her husband or a third-party donor without sexual intercourse. It was first introduced in the 1940s.
Cases of artificial insemination, whether abroad or here, have grown by leaps and bounds and correspondingly raised vexing legal, ethical and medical problems. Not only is it perceived as the most feasible solution for childless couples; it is increasingly resorted to by single women who desire, for reasons of their own, to have children without having to go to bed with men, or by single gays or lesbians.
Now, you can have children without having to have sexual intercourse, and you can even choose the man whom you want to father your child.
Not unexpectedly, the theologians and men of the cloth vehemently object to what they describe as an unnatural, unethical and artificial way of having children.
Our Family Code timely introduced an amendment to determine the status of an offspring born of artificial insemination. Article 164 provides that, “Children conceived as a result of artificial insemination of the wife with the sperm of the husband or that of a donor or both are likewise legitimate children of the husband and his wife, provided that both of them authorized or ratified such insemination in a written instrument executed and signed by them before the birth of the child. The instrument shall be recorded in the civil registry together with the birth certificate of the child.”
Romero further noted that, if the offspring is aided by the science of cryo-preservation – couples may now have children at their convenience, even in the absence of the husband, or long after the termination of the marriage or, incredibly, long after his death, simply by freezing the husband’s semen during his lifetime, then thawing and using it for AI purposes when the need arises – Article 169 of the Family Code becomes applicable. It states:
“The legitimacy or illegitimacy of a child born after three hundred days following the termination of the marriage shall be proved by whoever alleges such legitimacy or illegitimacy.”
She noted that there was a case where the wife decided to unfreeze the semen of her living husband for purposes of AI without his knowledge and consent. In such instances, there is the legal remedy of impugning the legitimacy of the child by the husband or, in a proper case, by his heirs. According to her, there are not enough laws or rules to protect those who are only too eager to resort to artificial insemination.
One can imagine the endless cases that may result in litigatios to hold any of these parties legally accountable: the doctor, the donor, the couple that resorts to artificial insemination, the surrogate mother, etc.
What may likewise spawn litigable issues and wreak emotional havoc on the offspring of such AI cases is the search by such an AI child for his biological father, such as one sees in movies and telenovelas in an effort at establishing his real identity or in trying to determine if he may have any predisposition to a disease or an allergy or for more materialistic considerations such as a desire to claim support or successional rights.
My take on this is more on whether or not it is morally right or not. Are we playing God with this or are we simply making use of available technology?
Raised in a Protestant family, my personal belief is that God makes things happen for a reason. Though often not according to how we want it, there is this greater and divine reason why we are single, married, childless or of child.
Although it derails me from this principle, I would consider artificial insemination. Unknowing of the biblical take on the matter, I simply see it as an opportunity worth considering. Because if it is meant to be for me, the insemination process will work out; if not, there could very well a lesson for me to understand in this process. (gordon.qg@hotmail.com/PN)
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