Vivian > Status Update

about the man’s consent at all. The law was silent, and a consent requirement cannot be assumed; it must be stated.

legal intervention to demand that his wishes be considered or that the abortion be stopped. Lawsuits have been brought by husbands and boyfriends to stop the plans of a wife or girlfriend for an abortion, even though Canadian law never required the man’s consent or even required that he be consulted. In fact, there was no law

create difficulties because he may want a say. When the couple have a good relationship, and can communicate and make joint decisions for their mutual well-being, they do so, and the law does not get involved. But when they cannot agree about completing or terminating a pregnancy, the man has sometimes sought

see the pregnancy through to completion. Her partner’s opinion and moral support will be important. Normally, she will consult with her doctor and perhaps secure a second opinion. But the woman is in charge of her own life, and the final decision over her body is hers. The role of the man in childbirth decisions can

It is then up to the woman alone to determine whether she chooses to

from his sibling. In a tightly knit homogeneous Dutch village, the black child of a white mother created quite a sensation. 2. Choice and Consent In a nutshell, a man and a woman decide whether to have intercourse and whether to use contraception. After that, it is up to fate and the procreative powers of the couple to determine whether the woman gets pregnant.

failed to clean an instrument used in the insemination process, the mother’s eggs were accidentally inseminated with a black donor’s sperm as well as with her husband’s. As the child’s complexion darkened during his first year of life, the parents had tests taken that confirmed he had a different biological father

The dangers inherent in modern reproductive technologies were highlighted in newspaper reports in 1995 about a Dutch couple who had twins as a result of in vitro fertilization, supposedly using the wife’s ovum and the husband’s sperm. One twin was black and the other white because, when the technician