Barbara Kay on Messing with Mother Nature

The recent death of the Spanish woman who gave birth to twins at the "tender" age of 66 and then died 3 years later leaving her 2 boys orphaned, has inpired Barbara Kay into writing this thought provoking article on the subject of how we are turning a blind eye to the changes taking place in human species. An extract from Ms.Kay's piece: "Much more advanced mechanically, and already in unofficial progress is the technology-aided conception of donor siblings. The movie My Sister's Keeper should have initiated intense discussion amongst cultural observers. The plot revolves around an 11-year old girl's attempt to free herself from bodily servitude to her leukemia-stricken older sister. The younger girl was conceived for the purpose of providing life-saving nutrients to her sister. In fact her umbilical cord and later, marrow transplants, do keep the older sister going for many years. The crisis occurs when the older sister, obviously dying, needs a kidney which, it is made clear, will not save her life. The desperate mother assumes the younger sister will happily contribute a kidney. What happens next, though marred by Boston-legal style courtroom histrionics and some pretty unrealistic family dynamics, should have been the basis for a flurry of in-depth commentaries by cultural observers. Unlike the 66-year old mother's case, in which one person's selfishness is the core of the story, issues like cloning, autonomous conception and donor siblings present a variety of emotional and moral claims that cannot be so easily sorted out and judged." the entire article here