The Victorian Parliament in Australia seem to be debating some interesting legislation at the moment. After the post the other day on abortion and some subsequent surfing of the web, I have discovered that the Victorians are also looking to pass a bill that will provide reproduction assistance to lesbians, single women, and couples.
It seems the bill has become known as the lesbian fertility bill. However, the bill is clearly much more than that. Yet, it might seem to some to be an attack on the traditional family unit, as it is clear that lesbians and single women would have a right of access to fertility assistance and treatment.
The bill has passed the lower house with a reasonably comfortable vote of 47 - 34. The bill now goes to the upper house. The vote though highlights that the Liberal - National coalition all voted against the bill and so did four members of the government.
I wonder if the objection to the bill, by some members of parliament and the community, includes a belief that lesbian parents and single mothers would not make good parents or role models for their children? I need to search a little farther and wider to find out on this one.
Personally, I do not think that it matters whether you are lesbian, gay, or single when it comes to whether you will be a good parent. Let's face it there are plenty of examples of non-lesbian, non-gay, and non-single parents who are struggling to raise well-adjusted kids.
17 comments:
i'm not saying that lesbians shouldn't be allowed to be mom (they should) but really, I do think it's fundamentally necessary for kids to have two parents, a mother and a father.
this is a good piece on it from a while ago,
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-blankenhorn19-2008sep19,0,2093869.story
Tree...
This is the idea that to be well-adjusted adults the child(ren) need to have been exposed to both male and female role models, right?
Is it possible that the children of lesbian or gay couples can find these role models in grandparents or friends of the couples (or single mums) in question?
I am happy do donate my time to assist lesbians to conceive. (only the hot cute ones, the barnyard dog ones can wait in line).
It seems to me that we have enough evidence already to see the damage of fatherless families.
PB...
Why am I not surprised on the lining them up front?
Evidence? This is what I am looking into.
Well, I could produce some statistics if you wanted. There must be osme research in our library on it.
My first pass woulds be to rank juvenile crime and suicide to single parent statistics say 1948-2008. My guess is you would see a pattern.
Second pass woul be to eliminate external influences, a lot harder unless you have good data. Research into fatherless crime v fathered child crime etc.
Must be here somewhere.....
This site rpovides a commentary but offers no links...
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/08/03/kids-and-crime/
hmmmm.....
This is better
http://www.nationalobserver.net/2002_winter_110.htm
PB...
You did the research for me. Thanks!
Rob,
I don't think its a lesbian/single thing it is a scarce resourse thing and lesbian/ singles could chose the "tradition" method. ART should be the last point of call which is why couples pay so much.
GJ...
I guess they could.
Rob
I have a huge essay due in 2 weeks on ART, thanks for all the ideas. Could I please have any of your links for my research.
Tree, I am surprised...I expected you to be much more liberal.
I agree Rob, it is the quality of the parent that matters not the gender.
I think gender matters as well.
Without role models we are forced to learn from scratch, trial and error. Unless boys see a man performing a mans role (and I don’t mean drinking beer on the sofa) they don’t understand what men add to the mix. And despite what we are told, men do add to the marriage.
From the site referred by PB:
"They arrived at this startling conclusion: the proportion of single-parent households in a community predicts its rates of violent crime and burglary, but the community’s poverty level does not. Neither poverty nor race seem to account very much for the crime rate, compared to the proportion of single parent families, Smith and Jarjoura found."
I've dumped all my econometrics books and traded them for baking for beginners recently. But reading the above paragraph I cannot help to think that the explantory variables for crime rates (poverty, race, and proportion of single parent families) are likely to be highly correlated. Say, teenage pregnancy resulting in young single mothers are highly correlated with race or pverty, and race is correlated with poverty. But then again, I guess I have to read the article before commenting any further.
My point is, social economic status matters a lot to determine a child's outcome. So if you get two well educated Lesbians professionals wanting to get ART, can we really say that your kid has a likelihood of being involved in a crime?
I meant "high" likelihood. :)
KD...
I think that there is more to the story than just being a single parent. I would have thought that socio-economic status would also play a significant part in the "outcomes" (AKA children).
Jen...
I will post them tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing this informative blog post. I could share it to my cousin she needs it. Thank you so much. She is going to take a IVF treatment in a leading fertility centre in Coimbatore.
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