Squeamish about babies from beyond the grave

Should modern technologies be used by women who seek to conceive a child after the death of their partners?

One wonders why we are witnessing all this hand-wringing, particularly since nothing has actually happened in this area. The Independent thought the issue so important that it ran a leader, as well as a number of articles, on posthumous conception. Meanwhile, in The Guardian, Jerome Burne is sufficiently rattled by the idea that men may become nothing more than sperm machines that he suggests, 'Surely Girl Power was never intended to go this far?'

The case of Diane Blood is fresh in many people's minds. Mrs Blood has recently given birth to a son, some years after the untimely death of her husband. The sperm which allowed Mrs Blood to conceive was collected from her husband as he lay comatose. Diane Blood's case has left in its wake the idea that men's bodies can now be ravaged as they lie dying. Another case from the United States, where a mother ordered the retrieval of her teenage son's sperm moments before his death, has done nothing to ameliorate the feeling that nothing is sacred anymore.

Of course neither of these cases is relevant in the British context. The doctors who retrieved Mr Blood's sperm acted illegally because he had not consented to the procedure, so the situation will not arise again. In the UK at least, men's bodies cannot be used as a sperm bank without their prior approval.

Some commentators have focused on the welfare of the children born as a result of such procedures. But the most that they can say is that it is not known whether children conceived in such a way will be affected by it. Instead, all that such commentators can criticise is the apparent increase in children born according to parent's desires, rather than children's interests. But since there are many more children born into one parent families or into other contexts that many consider inferior to the nuclear family, one wonders why the concern about the welfare of children is restricted to reproductive technologies. Could it be that many high-minded commentators are just a little bit squeamish about babies being conceived after the death of their genetic father?