{"id":80,"date":"2009-03-05T11:37:31","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T10:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=80"},"modified":"2009-03-05T11:37:31","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T10:37:31","slug":"its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/03\/05\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s another blow to fatherhood<\/a>, the traditional family, and all things good and pure, squeals the Daily Heil<\/em>.*\u00a0 What could raise such spleen?\u00a0 By the looks of it, it’s Part 2 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008)<\/a>, although the paper doesn’t have the good\u00a0grace to provide a link.\u00a0 This piece of legislation reduces the place of genetic relationships in respect of fatherhood – in effect, it reflects a shift away from a (presumed) genetic basis for parenthood to a more social basis.\u00a0 Mothers remain gestational, but fatherhood, in the legal sense, becomes a matter of consent.\u00a0 And, with that consent, the named second parent assumes the rights – and, importantly, responsibilities – of the (traditional) father:<\/p>\n

Where by virtue of section 33, 35, 36, 42 or 43 a person is to be treated as the mother, father or parent of a child, that person is to be treated in law as the mother, father or parent (as the case may be) of the child for all purposes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What really gets my goat about the article is the way in which a number of commentators has been wheeled out to provide their anti- soundbites.\u00a0 Balanced it is not.\u00a0 Notably, all the bioethicists quoted are anti-the legislation: there’s no hint that there might be anything good about it from a bioethicist’s point of view.\u00a0 Thus the false impression is given that we’re all of a mind, and that “ethics” roughly equates to a kind of social conservatism.<\/p>\n

For the record, and for what it’s worth, I\u00a0can see lots of good things about the law.\u00a0 Even granted\u00a0for the sake of the argument that, generally,\u00a0a hetero and stable marriage provides the best possible start in life for children,\u00a0it doesn’t follow that the other options are damaging<\/em> – there’s a false dichotomy here.\u00a0 (Having parents who can take you to the park and play football is probably better than having, say,\u00a0paraplegic parents – but\u00a0it doesn’t follow from that that paraplegics even come close to\u00a0harming their kids.\u00a0 Perfect parents would be great – but none of us has them…)\u00a0 That a non-related person may be able more easily to take on the parental role and responsibilities strikes me as a good thing – and, if you’re a fan of the nuclear family, it ought to strike you similarly.\u00a0 Even if you think that having a nominated second parent is a poor substitute for the traditional father, it is still at least a substitute.\u00a0 It’s better than nothing.\u00a0 (And, of course, it’s not a given that a child always would\u00a0be better of in a traditional nuclear family.)<\/p>\n

But I don’t want this to be a piece about the virtues and vices of a law.\u00a0 Its about the representation of bioethical opinion in the news.\u00a0 I realise that that’s not really a reasonable expectation – the Mail<\/em> has to sell papers somehow, and it knows what its target market wants to hear – but… grrr.\u00a0 A little bit of thought would be nice.\u00a0 And, if this post achieves anything simply by appearing on Google searches, at least it’ll have gone some way to balancing the picture.<\/p>\n

*Oh, all right.\u00a0 I know I’m kicking a puppy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s another blow to fatherhood, the traditional family, and all things good and pure, squeals the Daily Heil.*\u00a0 What could raise such spleen?\u00a0 By the looks of it, it’s Part 2 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008), although the paper doesn’t have the good\u00a0grace to provide a link.\u00a0 This piece of legislation reduces […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,591,475],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-life-and-death","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine) - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/03\/05\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine) - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s another blow to fatherhood, the traditional family, and all things good and pure, squeals the Daily Heil.*\u00a0 What could raise such spleen?\u00a0 By the looks of it, it’s Part 2 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008), although the paper doesn’t have the good\u00a0grace to provide a link.\u00a0 This piece of legislation reduces [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/03\/05\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-05T10:37:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"It’s the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine)\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-05T10:37:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Life and Death\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/05\\\/its-the-end-of-the-father-as-we-know-him-and-i-feel-fine\\\/\",\"name\":\"It's the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine) - 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