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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Men can do anything women can

65 replies

OhHolyJesus · 06/03/2022 08:31

Can they? Looks like you needed not one but two women to be a father. Women can be mothers with just the sperm.

Not the same. So very far from it being the same. Men can be fathers but no they cannot be mothers.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10579037/Men-women-shouldnt-IVF-baby-own.html

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AlsoNotAGirl · 11/03/2022 09:49

@FannyCann

But, I can honestly say, William was worth every penny

I can honestly say I hope William never grows up to read those words.

There is an honesty about declaring that William was bought though Hmm I wonder would he have still felt he got his money’s worth if William was born disabled?
Waitwhat23 · 11/03/2022 06:57

I was just surprised by the lack of the word 'amirite?!' which seems to be standard in the kind of trite statements made by those who are woefully uninformed or are deliberate community disruptors.

'Deal with it' is almost amusing in what it reveals about that poster.

DoobryWhatsit · 11/03/2022 06:41

Does anyone else find the use of the word "gals" the most inflammatory aspect of that enlightening interjection by @AnnihilatePutin?

FannyCann · 11/03/2022 06:25

But, I can honestly say, William was worth every penny

I can honestly say I hope William never grows up to read those words.

AnnihilatePutin · 11/03/2022 05:12

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Laniania · 11/03/2022 03:21

"Daddy's special helpers." Hmm

CharlieParley · 10/03/2022 22:17

Consent in this case requires informed consent.

Notably lacking in case of egg donation is research into the long-term health effects. We've had over 30 years of egg harvesting and there's a dearth of studies looking into long-term consequences for the donors. And that's worldwide.

When given advice before donating and then consenting, most women are not adequately informed about increased cancer risk, loss of fertility, risk of strokes, kidney disease, heart attacks or death. They are not informed about the risk of artificially inducing menopause decades before it happens naturally (that's what the first step in the process is that waitwhat23 has detailed above.) It often involves a drug like Lupron, the type of drugs used to block puberty. (Whose dangerous side effects for women and children we've discussed at length on other threads.)

There is also no research into the long-term health outcomes for women whose natural cycle is stopped and restarted in this way several times. Which happens a lot with egg donors.

And that's just step one.

Equating this dangerous procedure with sperm donation even in terms of consent betrays a clear lack of knowledge about how these women are "informed". There's a lot of statements from the typically young and poor women who are solicited for their eggs to support this criticism.

They are not fully informed, because if they were, few women would risk it in my view. And that's leaving aside the question of informed consent being possible at all when the long-term consequences are severely underresearched.

TheWeeDonkey · 10/03/2022 21:10

I've got a friend who is pregnant at the moment and although she is very excited about becoming a mother she is having the most horrendous pregnancy, a healthy young woman in her 20s with no underlying conditions. This has floored her, she's had to start her maternity leave early and is almost housebound.

Nobody can guarantee what kind of pregnancy they will have. I just think it's too much to expect a person to go through something like that for someone else, and that's before we even start thinking about labour and birth.

ScreamingBeans · 10/03/2022 20:19

No informed consent can predict how you will feel about a baby you carry and birth.

The passion that some women feel for their babies, astonishes them. They had no idea they were going to feel like that. You cannot get informed consent for those primal emotions.

And you're not allowed to take puppies and kittens away from their mothers as early as you're allowed to take human babies. Why not?

ScreamingBeans · 10/03/2022 20:17

Fertility equality - exploitation of desperate women and baby trafficking.

Vile.

AlsoNotAGirl · 10/03/2022 20:12

@yellowtwo

EmpressCixi The women should make money for doing this. They should be paid 24hrs/7 days a week, overtime, extra for nights, bank holidays, time in lieu for annual leave. They should be paid at a rate for a specialist. Why are women expected to do this as a gift?
They should also have life and disability insurance as part of that pay for those times when they suffer injury or die as a result of the pregnancy. The risks of a dangerous pregnancy are higher in surrogacy pregnancies.
yellowtwo · 10/03/2022 18:37

EmpressCixi
The women should make money for doing this.
They should be paid 24hrs/7 days a week, overtime, extra for nights, bank holidays, time in lieu for annual leave. They should be paid at a rate for a specialist.
Why are women expected to do this as a gift?

Palmfrond · 10/03/2022 14:01

whatever the ethics of surrogacy and egg donation might be, how is this late middle aged man, who presumably will be working his normal job, going to raise this child on his own? Probable answer; by paying nannies, childminders, the maid etc to do it for him.
They would be the child’s mother, and it’s sad to think that this man will be able to dismiss those women on a whim.
It all seems very entitled and arrogant.
As a father myself, I understand my role to be very different from that of my children’s mother, and tbh in that role I am fairly replaceable. Their mother is not.
Lastly, £200k! How many children’s lives could be saved and/or turned around with that!

AlsoNotAGirl · 10/03/2022 13:23

I’m also a bit Hmm at a law lecturer boasting doing something that is illegal in the UK ie. buying a baby via surrogacy. And in the process doing something else that is also illegal in the UK, ie. Selecting an embryo by sex for non medical reasons

I really hope Simon Burrell doesn’t lecture on legal ethics at UCL

JaninaDuszejko · 10/03/2022 13:12

I never understand why it is legal to sell your womb and vagina for surrogacy (sorry 'get your expenses covered') but not legal to sell your vagina for sex. You can argue about egg donation all you want because you think that's easier to defend. However, unless you can explain how a man having a wank is equivalent to growing a child and giving birth both by level of risk to the adult and impact on emotional wellbeing of both the adult volunteer and the created child then comparing the use of a sperm bank with the use of a surrogate is ridiculous. Surrogacy is exploitative in all its forms and should be illegal.

Clymene · 10/03/2022 12:29

It is a deliberate attempt to sever the links between a mother and child.

I wonder how many wealthy men we will see doing this? Designer babies, with sex selection (illegal in the U.K.) being a bonus extra

DomesticatedZombie · 10/03/2022 12:21

' Avoiding the risk of bonding was also one of the reasons the agency recommended having a separate egg donor, so there was no genetic link to the surrogate'

JFC. The RISK of bonding? Bonding is essential for a happy, well adjusted child. Its obscene to deliberately make a child and deliberately deprive it of this bonding. Obscene.

AlsoNotAGirl · 10/03/2022 11:27

I feel sick at the casualness with which he chose a male embryo over a female

EmpressCixi · 10/03/2022 10:22

@yellowtwo

EmpressCixi This thread is not just about the UK. It is illegal to buy and sell organs everywhere in the world, yet people are buying women's wombs.
Not in the U.K. as it is also illegal to be a surrogate for profit. Other places are wrong to not have the laws we have in place about selling organs or wombs for profit. That’s another topic really, the fact other countries do not regulate to prevent exploitation.
yellowtwo · 09/03/2022 21:48

EmpressCixi
This thread is not just about the UK.
It is illegal to buy and sell organs everywhere in the world, yet people are buying women's wombs.

OhHolyJesus · 09/03/2022 21:44

Then the answer to this is informed consent.

Difficult if you are told there are no risks which isn't the same as being told there are no known risks.

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OhHolyJesus · 09/03/2022 21:43

Honestly the way you go on about it you’d think they advertising to donate eggs like they do for the armed forces....which is worlds more slick and coercive to young people and actually could mean they end up dead not just a little bit worse off...

You mean like how they advertise the harvesting of eggs from young women starting university as they do in the U.K. with images of smiling young women and wording about being an Angel or helping others, that sort of thing?

It's unlikely I think to die from harvesting eggs but IVF drugs may be connected to reproductive cancers (studies flip flop on the subject, there appears to be no conclusive evidence and I wonder how much the pharmaceutical manufacturers are involved) but you could end up infertile, or suffer from OHSS.

Not as bad as being blown to pieces in a war though so I guess it's ok.

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EmpressCixi · 09/03/2022 21:35

@Delphinium20

It is also a slippery slope because let’s face it the procedures to donate many organs are more risky and complicated than egg donation, are women too weak and too stupid to consent to those as well?

The reality is young women, 18, 19, 20 are targeted for giving up their eggs. Because commissioning parents "shop" women who have desirable traits like high IQ, beauty, health and skin color, many donors are cash-strapped college students who have never had a child of their own and whose brains are not as developed as adults over 25.

I concede there are differences of informed consent with egg donation: a woman in her 30s or 40/ who has gone through fertility treatments may donate her eggs and you could argue she has thought more clearly about the long-term impacts of egg donation (and more aware of the health risks) than a young woman of 18 who needs some fast cash.

However, money is almost always part of the donor egg equation, even for older women, as they are often given discounts for fertility treatments if they agree to donate any leftover eggs or embryos. A woman desperately wanting to be a mother might feel pressure to donate in this situation, which is also a form of coercion.

Then the answer to this is informed consent. Education campaigns. Not banning women from their rights with the excuse it’s for their protection. Honestly the way you go on about it you’d think they advertising to donate eggs like they do for the armed forces....which is worlds more slick and coercive to young people and actually could mean they end up dead not just a little bit worse off...
EmpressCixi · 09/03/2022 21:32

@yellowtwo

What other organs can a person "donate" and receive a fee for? EmpressCixi
What do you mean? It is illegal for a woman to sell her eggs for profit in the U.K. it is normal for donors of all organs to be compensated any costs they might bear due to donation surgery, recovery, lost wages etc.
ChopinBoard · 09/03/2022 19:16

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[Venus Rising] Podcast #008 - Matt Doran #venusRising
podcastaddict.com/episode/100581145 via @PodcastAddict

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