ADVANCING

Playing God: Eggs from foetuses, artificial wombs, dead men's sperm - it's not only the religious right who object to such 'advances' (Hilary and Steven Rose, July 3, 2003, The Guardian)

One of the unanticipated consequences of the genetic revolution in a highly individualised society is that it has helped foster a cultural preoccupation with genetic origins. A secure loving home is the foundation of any child's well-being. Yet the questions of who am I, who are my "real" parents, are ones many much-loved adopted children still ask. This longing is being recognised by a gradual shift in which it is seen as desirable for sperm donors to lose their invisibility. Legislation increasingly gives adopted children the right to know their birth parents.

Such shifts acknowledge that the longing to know our genetic identity has become more acute in the age of genetics. So consider the existential crisis faced by a child who learns that she is the product of a fertilised ovum harvested from a long-dead foetus and frozen sperm from an unidentifiable source.

You could then clone the fetus and have a child older than his mother. Of course, by then they'll be able to marry too... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 3, 2003 11:39 PM