Thomas Beatie...revisited

By far, and I mean really far, this post on Thomas Beatie has brought more visitors to Bessemer Opinions than any previous post. I track those kinds of things, when I have time. Not more comments than other posts, but more visitors. And from countries, literally, around the world. Lots of interest in the story.

There have been some interesting comments, and I am going to copy one of them here, and my response which I also posted as a comment.

A reader had this to say:

I am a heterosexual woman with VERY liberal views on the LGBT community. But this situation is where I draw the line. There is no miracle about Thomas's ability to carry a child she's a woman - that's what we do! Thomas needs to see shrink, she wants to identify as a man but have the rights of a women! WTF?? Stop being greedy either you are or your not. Thomas is trying to play God - defy nature what he is doing is mocking the cycle of life. SHAME ON THEM!!

And here is my response:

I remember in 1978 when Louise Brown was an embryo in a test tube and the news of her successful implantation into the uterus of her natural mother took place. I remember the same types of comments, that Steptoe and the other doctors involved were playing God. Of course, Lesley Brown was the natural parent, so there are differences. No wait, Thomas is the natural parent also. And his baby was not concieved in a test tube, outside of the body.

Now in vitro fertilization is commonplace, and no one, well almost no one, thinks anything of it, except maybe questioning the multiple births that usually take place with these techniques. But is it playing God when we use a woman as a breeding machine to produce a litter? Is that mocking the human cycle of life, and mocking God? After all, the human uterus is not designed to carry 4 or 5 fetuses, yet the fertility Gods..docs...deem it so.

Also common are surrogate pregnancies where a woman carries the fetus of another woman and has the baby and then just gives it up. Is that healthy for the woman (the surrogate)or the baby? Is that playing God?

When Sarah (Sarai) couldn't bear Abraham's (Abram's) child he tried that surragacy thing, sort of, with Hagar. Who was playing God there?

Of couse they had that whole incest, who's your daddy thing going on with Sarah and Abraham having the same father (oh, really?) and rumors about Abimelech being the daddy of Isaac.So unusual pregnancies and relationships did not begin with Thomas Beatie, and they won't end there.

Oh, the flower pictures will have to wait till later in the weekend..