Culture Quotes of the Week

Years ago I used to juxtapose two quotes that I felt represented the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death on an issue nearly every week.  I think I might bring that back starting with these.  But because my readers are so smart and don't need me to tell them which is which, I will just call them Culture Quotes:

"The connection between marriage and parenthood is not a vestige—it is a thriving expectation that those who get married will at least consider pursuing parenthood. Marriage is a celebration of two people’s union and the possibility of parenthood. And gay marriage entails not just social approval of gay love, but also social approval of the possibility of gay parenthood.... Because of this, many gay married couples that want to become parents will opt to use ART.... Donor-conception, unlike adoption, is a market where new humans are created to fulfill the demands of the adults that want them. “Commercially conceived” persons are deliberately denied a relationship with one or both of our biological parents. The tragic, primal wound ubiquitous in adoption literature is woven into every commercially conceived person’s life story."

--Alana S. Newman, donor-conceived adult and founder of The Anonymous Us Project—an anonymous story collective for people involved with Artificial Reproductive Technologies (ART)

"The criminalisation of sperm and egg donation has absolutely nothing to do with the protection of the embryo and is based on a restrictive model of the family which no longer applies in today's world. [Malta Gay Rights Movement] reiterates that it is not the role of the State to determine who can or cannot become a parent and the introduction of this Act would constitute an unjustified intrusion in the private lives of individuals.  It is truly shameful that LGBT persons will be forced to access reproductive health services in other countries at their own expense while subsidising the health services available to their heterosexual counterparts with their tax contributions, once again reinforcing the notion of second class citizenship."

--  Gabi Calleja of the Malta Gay Rights Movement on Malta's proposed Embryo Protection Bill that would ban the use of donor egg and sperm in IVF