Editorial - Writers Forum

hoolio · 01-21-2004, 05:08 PM

We have to write an editorial for english class and I was wondering what you thought.

The Freedom of Choice

An HIV- positive couple is suing a fertility clinic for $90,000 because they refused to inseminate the woman. The couple had already paid $10,000 before the clinic said they wouldn’t inseminate her because there was a chance that the baby could have HIV and, if so, could sue the clinic.
This presents a catch 22 situation for the clinic: if they inseminate the woman and the baby is born HIV positive, it can sue the clinic, but when they refuse they get sued for not inseminating the woman. It is fair, of course, that the money that the couple had already paid should be refunded, but the fact that they are suing for the discrimination of being refused because they were HIV positive is, to put it bluntly, insane.
Fertility clinics should be free to refuse to artificially inseminate people because of things they think might affect them somehow, now or in the future, without the danger of being sued. This case is merely one of many in which the clinic has been held liable for refusing a client. A blind woman in Colorado is suing a clinic because they refused to inseminate her. They had observed her over several months and did not find her capable of mothering a child. She claimed she had help to care for the child when, in fact, she did not. You would think it would be their choice and their right to do so but, alas, no. The woman claims they refused her on basis of her disability, which is partly true. There was, however some research involved and they did not feel she was suitable to be a parent.
The main point in the matter is this: fertility clinics are doing people a favour, they don’t have to do it. It is not a right, it is a privilege and the fact that people are abusing that privilege is wrong. The clinics are trying to help them and the bottom line is, if they don’t want to treat someone, they shouldn’t have to.