Hi there,

Before I forget, there will be no BioEdge
newsletter on the weekend of April 22-24, the Easter holiday, although we will
post some articles.

In the course of trawling through the news,
I sometimes come across situations so bizarre that they provide case studies
for bioethical discussions. Take the news that Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband (her ninth)
has announced that she is going to become a mother again.

It’s an original idea. Zsa Zsa is 94, is bed-ridden,
speaks very little, just had a leg amputated, and has had trouble with strokes
and blood clots. However, hubbie Prince Frederic von Anhalt says that he has
given sperm samples to the Southern California Reproductive Center in Beverly
Hills. He plans to use a donated egg and a surrogate mother.

“We talked about it, saying ‘Remember,
we always wanted a baby, and now it’s too late,’” he
told AFP. “And I said to her, ‘Well maybe it’s not too late.'”

He estimates that producing the child will
cost about US$100,000. Even though Zsa Zsa now utters only about two sentences
a day, he is confident that she likes the idea.

There are so many things wrong with this absurd
proposal that it’s not worth cataloguing them. But the law provides no
protection for the future child. If Prince what’s-his-name wants a kid and can
pay for it, he can have it. Thankfully, this is probably nothing more than a
publicity stunt. But it makes you think about the wisdom of allowing assisted
reproduction to function with almost no regulation.

Cheers,
Michael Cook
Editor

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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