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Illegal Beings: Human Clones
Re: family law
boundlesslife ( 03/11/2004, 06:08:44 )(Q) I'm a law student with the assignment of writing a paper in my family law course about the topic of human cloning and how it pertains to family law issues. For example, when a donor egg is in vitro fertilized by a donor sperm and placed in a surrogate mother for the ultimate purpose of adoption by yet another couple..... who is the parent according to the law?
(A) The law may not "speak" to this yet by either case history or statute, so the answer may be speculation, but if both the sperm donor and the donor of the ovum or egg (each providing half the genome) signed releases of parenthood rights, and the project were paid for by the "yet another couple", wouldn't that couple be accorded rights of parenthood without the necessity of adoption, thereby eliminating the need to specify who the parent or parents might be, from whom the adoption would have been required??
(Q) How does this compare to a cloned offspring? Who are the parents?
(A) "Genome-Parent" could be used to refer to the individual whose genome was used. If the embryo were carried by a surrogate mother, we wouldn't expect the surrogate mother to have rights except in special cases by agreement (discussed below). Of course, if the woman providing the ovum and carrying the baby were also the genome parent, we could refer to her as an “absolute parent” vs. a "genome parent".
Since all of the genetic material in the embryo comes from the genome parent, clearly the "genome donor" is the true biological parent. Further, the genome parent would also be a genetic sibling (brother or sister) of the new baby, as if they were identical twins displaced in time.
(Q) When it comes to inheritance based on family trees and there are natural children vs. cloned children... are they the same?
(A) Let's hope that any couple generating a biological "twin" of one (or both) of them will have a sophisticated intervivos trust, to deal with inheritance questions, along with an attorney who knows a lot about what is involved. Perhaps you'll be one of those attorneys, if you pioneer ways to deal with such issues, as you delve further into the questions you're raising.
(Q) How about child support for a child that really only has one parent?
(A) There will be both simple and complex cases:
*** (1) If there were (truly) only one parent, the “absolute parent” discussed above, then there would be only one source of support.
*** (2) Suggestive of more complicated cases, if the surrogate mother were the willing recipient of an unrestricted "genome donation" by a parent or grand parent, (or other close family member, or even an unrelated person), with no restrictions, then it seems as if the surrogate mother (or she and her husband) would be the legal parent(s). The genome donation agreement could define support for the child, from the genome donor as well as rights and prerogatives of child rearing. It seems as if such agreements should be enforceable contracts. Again, the services of a knowledgeable attorney would seem to be essential.
(Q) I've read some of the essays and plan to read more but I'd like some ideas for discussion in my paper. Suggestions?
(A) How about exploring the value of a "genome donation and consent to be cloned" document, where the genome might eventually be derived from a deceased family member. Other relatives might contest cloning, and but such a document executed by the genome parent while still mentally competent could be a defense in favor of the recipient of the donation. More fundamentally, a whole body of law may develop that requires or strongly advocates that a "genome donor" give informed consent. This might be a broad and detailed document acknowledging many of the possible downsides of cloning, as well as formally consenting to cloning. Other people, fearful of being cloned by relatives, may wish to execute personal mandates against cloning, that would have the opposite effect as to any person who might ever have possession of genomes from those people. A simpler, standard form could be useful, in these cases.
Additional Comments:
I'm happy to see a law student taking an interest in these issues. At first, cloning is almost certain to take place with little or no documentation. The courts will sort out the issues. Legislation will be generated, much of it prohibitive and poorly thought out. As this happens, the needs for documentation will become apparent.
The approach of “preventive” legal measures, anticipating problems and preventing them, would be beneficial in many ways. It would demonstrate that the many of the problems and difficulties that could have arisen have been foreseen, and will pave the way for more rapid acceptance and more reasonable legislation. Such work might even find its way into litigation, by way of argument that, "here is the way this issue was addressed in private agreement, and may guide us in this particular case."
If careful thought is not given to these issues, cloning will remain a curiosity, an oddity, longer than need be, and will have to wait for a longer time to fulfill its potential as (perhaps) a common modality of reproduction, in which (as anti-aging medicine develops) many will seek the very high companionship potential of having an “identical twin” in the world, perhaps a bit younger than themselves, but nonetheless more "akin" to themselves than any other.
(See the great book on this, "Entwined Lives" by Nancy L. Segal, for a comprehensive discussion of how twins relate to each other, not as "copies" of each other, but as people who have a basis for common understanding rarely achieved by those lacking this strength of connection.)
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