link Will men who don't want to pay chld support make an impact on abortion laws in this country? CNN is running this story about a Roe v. Wade lawsuit for men. This gentleman (and I use the term loosely) is suing his ex-girl friend, contending she should have had an abortion when she became pregnant since she knew he didn't want to have children.
Now he is stuck with child support because she "chose" to have a baby by him and not an abortion. How does our community fell about these issues?
the New York Court of Appeals in Kass v.
Kass15 denied a divorcing wife the right to implant frozen embryos over the
husband's objection because the jointly signed consent form had said that, in
the case of divorce, embryos were to be used for research.
link
So there is precedent for a male to control his fertilized embryo. There are precedents for males to be able to deny their frozen sperm to their ex-wives. However an estate couldn't deny a widow the opportunity to create an heir using her husband's frozen sperm. Some women have the sperm extracted from their recently deceased spouses for this purpose.
Would a man who had a prenuptual pre-intercourse agreement with a sexual partner be able to enforce termination of his parental rights and responsibilities?
Should the man be able to insist of proof the sexual partner took birth control?
What if the birth control failed? Should he have had a vasectomy and frozen his sperm to secure his parental rights were disposed of most successfully? What if they thawed and wasted his sperm? He could sue over loss of this sperm- just as he could sue for loss of ability to be a father if he were in an accident rendering him sterile.
There are property rights attached to ownership of these fertilized embryos. You have to pay to keep them on liquid nitrogen. Fertility Centers make you sign all sorts of waivers about what to do in case of death or divorce, but people are complex and keep coming up with new dilemmas.
These are times that make you think. One court has decided that the fertilized embryos in clinics have rights- which would eliminate stem cell research in the USA and force the 100,000s of fertilized embryos to be implanted or forbid them from being thawed.
Sounds like some men might like to get some waivers and signatures on some prenups (or prenookie) agreements. But would a woman want to have a sexual relationship with a man who asked to clear him of all parental responsibilities? Might work if you are George Clooney, but I am thinking these legal agreements might ruin the mood from quite a few sexual relationships.
Please help me out with your thoughts on these issues. I am trying to see this openly from all sides, since I am a feminist.