I found myself breifly channel surfing yesterday and stumbled upon the rarely watched by anyone sitcom "Yes Dear." The main charcters of the show are two married couples living in close quarters - two homes that share a yard and largely share their lives together. Little did I know that this crappy sitcom would present a real-life possible philosophical question. The plot of the particular episode I was watching one of the men was visited by his high school girlfriend and her husband. His old girlfriend and her husband were having trouble having a child and came to visit to ask if he would donate his sperm to them to have a child since his old gf had fond memories of him and felt more comfortable being impregnated by the sperm of a man she knew rather than picking from a catalog of donors neither she nor her husband knew. When the asked to donate man actually begins to consider donating to them his wife gets upset that she feels she should have equal say in whether he goes through with it. This leads to the punch line of "it's my body, and a man's right to choose."
Joking aside, this may possibly be the closest parallel situation to a woman's right to choose an abortion. Should a man's wife have equal say in whether or not he donates sperm or put another way, helps create life outside of their marriage? Should she have any say?
Personally - I've come to the conclusion that while I'd prefer to have some say (or at least be consulted) if my partner was deciding whether or not to have a child I would never feel that I should be given anymore than 49% say. But I haven't had enough time to think about the other factors as to whether I think the flip side should be the outcome if a man wishes to donate his sperm.
I really hope they don't cancel that stupid show.
