tto think it should be illegal to travel abroad for anonymous egg/sperm donation?

[ZoeCM]

If the government can ban people from travelling outside the UK for FGM, why can't they ban this? It's absolutely appalling that clinics will destroy all records of a child's biological parent in this day and age. Yes, the child can potentially trace their parents through companies such as AncestryDNA, but there's no guarantee they'll be successful. It's a massive abuse of power.

Anonymous donation is all about what's best for the recipients and the donor, never the child. AIBU to think it should be illegal to travel abroad for this purpose?

You don’t need to have people ‘waiting to exist’ to make it an unselfish thing to sacrifice your time, money and attention for a sizeable chunk of your life for raising the next generation.

Some people need to have kids for the species to continue.

But that is overwhelmingly not the reason people have children. They have them because they want them, for their own fulfilment and satisfaction. I.e selfish reasons.

You can’t truthfully assert that. It’s just a neat idea with no actual proof, to make people feel better if they either don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices to be parents, or because they want to enter into a conspiracy with other adults to fabricate a human being with very unnatural levels of secrecy and intervention.

A vaguely plausible-sounding ‘gotcha’:

“It’s deprioritising the needs of the child to divorce them from their genetic heritage”

”Well isn’t all conception de-prioritising the needs of the child anyway?”.

Er no. It isn’t.

It doesn’t matter in the least if the species continues. The planet will survive just fine without us.

I don’t share your bleak misanthropy.

How would you know? If it was illegal people would just be going on holiday or to visit relatives. Nobodies business really.

Misanthropy? I like people as much as anyone else, but the fact is we are not necessary. The universe existed before us and will exist after us.

The humans who aren’t conceived after we cease to exist also won’t be suffering in any way.

Just like it's nobody's business when men go abroad and pay to rape children?

Congrats - you’ve found a comparison even more ridiculous than the FGM nonsense that started the thread!

It's not an offence that's comparable in severity, though it does harm a child.
It is, however, an offence to do this thing abroad even if it isn't against the laws of the country it's done in.

Neither you nor me would have suffered in any way had we not been conceived

This is a nonsensical statement and the fact that you would put it forward as an argument just sums up the absurdity of your arrogance in assuming jurisdiction over the ethics of who should be conceived (and by what method).

In what way is it nonsensical?

What doesn’t make sense is thinking that anyone conceives a child for the child’s benefit, not because they want a child.

What is nonsensical is you seeming to believe that people exist in some way before they are conceived, and that not being conceived harms them.

Indeed. The only reason for this belief I’ve come across is a religious one- ie a belief that God has a store of souls to distribute and you do a good thing by taking one.

Then if you subscribe to such a belief what does it mean if you are infertile? That God is refusing to give you a soul?

Yep.

God does everything (or doesn’t, as He decides). My mil has been waiting for 60 odd years for God to decide she is good enough and make her hearing instead of profoundly deaf!

I’m suffering from infertility and I believe in God. God is the creator. The doctors and scientists who can create and provide the treatments that help people are God given creations. If you had a child with hearing loss, would you accept God made them deaf? I’d explore options like hearing aids or cochlear implants. Faith and science can coexist. Many great scientists believed in God. Faith doesn’t mean you accept your lot in life and don’t try to change things because it’s “God’s Will.”

Faith doesn’t mean you accept your lot in life and don’t try to change things because it’s “God’s Will.”

Not for you. There is great variance in religious belief.

That’s true. Many religious people seem to think it’s their place to judge others, for example. I have a faith. I also believe in the Gospel statement “judge not lest ye be judged.” Therefore how people choose to create their families isn’t for me to judge or condemn.

We are all being judged all the time, it’s human nature.

For some humans. And some are nicer/quieter about it than others.

And?

And what? 🤯 I’m stepping out now because it’s the school hols and this is starting to feel like a discussion with one of my upper primary pupils!

Exactly, and what? Some people put being ‘nice’ above everything. That’s all very well, but in the real world there are issues which bear discussion.

Yes, but if you have faith and you've tried all the medical options without success, that has to be down to God, yes?