A FEMALE READER writes:

Thank you for your site! Your thoughts have been very influential in my decision to quit my part- time job. I wanted to express my gratitude and share an article with you.

I came across this New York Times article about couples who decide to abort half of a pair of twins and I thought of the recent thread on your page, The Test Tube Family. Although the entire article is disturbing, on so many levels, I found this quote particularly horrifying : 

If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn’t have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there’s a natural order, then you don’t want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner — in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me — and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control.

What we have done is disgusting! Human life has become a product to market and manipulate, another choice, a thing to control! The doctors who promote this unethical practice know it and so do their patients. They feel it as if they are handed choice after choice.

Thank you again for your site!

                                           — Comments —

Pan Dora writes:

Regarding that couple who aborted one to avoid a twin pregnancy, I am the mother of children from aggressive infertility treatment, though it did not include IVF. The first pregnancy resulted in the ideal: one child. The second, however, was a twin birth. If my memory of the statistics on assisted reproduction is accurate there’s about a 25-35% chance of multiples when these types of pregnancies occur. I am certain that this couple was well aware of the risks involved in assisted reproduction. I certainly was. It appears that this couple should have heeded that old saying If you can’t stand the time, then don’t do the crime. Don’t want to risk a multiple birth? Skip the whole thing. Otherwise man (or woman) up and accept responsibility for your decisions. It appears we are lacking in this these days.

My unplanned twin boys are 11 years old now. The thought of either one not being here sickens me.

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