Judge: Parents of Dead West Point Cadet Can Use His Sperm

Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2019-05-21 00:51

Article here. Even dead, men have no reproductive rights. Excerpt:

'The parents of a 21-year-old West Point cadet fatally injured in a skiing accident can use his frozen sperm to produce a child, a judge ruled while noting potential ethical considerations.

Supreme Court Justice John Colangelo's ruling, dated Thursday, gives Peter Zhu's parents the ability to attempt conception with a surrogate mother using their late son's sperm. The judge said Zhu's parents have not decided whether they will try to use it.

"At this time, the court will place no restrictions on the use to which Peter's parents may ultimately put their son's sperm, including its potential use for procreative purposes," Colangelo wrote.'

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Comments

The use of a man's biometric material, whether as sperm, DNA, fingerprints or retina scan, without their express permission is a dangerous and far reaching precident.

If a person's biometric material as sperm, can be used without consent, then so can any other biometric material. When your employer demands your fingerprints or DNA as a condition of employment, they then have extraordinary personal data about your genetic health risks, racial heritage, eugenic characteristics and just about everything about you.

Once these data are in the market place, they have value, and will be traded. So one day you may find that your car insurance is double that paid by your neighbor, because you have a 3% greater risk of cataracts or color blindness in your traded biometric data. Or you may find that your children are rejected by preschools or colleges, because your eugenic data suggest lower intelligence or a risk to other students or the community.

Biometric material and data are the property of individuals. But this approach to biometric materials allows them to be treated as property, and subject to assignment to others. In this case, like some kind of rights to the property of a deceased family member.

Biometric material must be recognised, not as property, but as body. And the rights of others to our bodies, must be protected by law.

Otherwise, what's to stop an exwife demanding a share of your sperm as part of a property divorse settlement?

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Submitted by rabel111 on Wed, 2019-05-22 00:58