Two years after US soldier's death, widow has his son

[Evil Chris]

What do you think about this story?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071019/sc_afp/usiraqwomenscienceivf

AUSTIN, United States (AFP) - Fifteen-month-old Benton is the spitting image of his father, a US soldier who died in Iraq two years before his son was born.

"He looks so much like his father, it's kind of scary," his mother Kathleen Smith told AFP, as she talked about her unusual decision to have her soldier-husband's baby posthumously, using semen frozen before he was deployed.
I'm not impressed by this story. Think about the child here. His entire life will now revolve around the strange way he was brought into this world, how his Dad was a hero (whether he was or not), and that the Iraqi war was an important necessity in the history of the USA. :geez:

[Rochard]

I disagree.

How do I put this into words....

When my parents met my father was a US Marine. They had a whirlwind romance, I was born, and four months after I was born my father went off to Vietnam. Five months later he came home in a body bag.

My mother tells me - no matter what - that I am a constant reminder of her love for him, and that I've grown up to be just like him. I've grown up without a father, but I'm a former US Marine, have two college degrees, and I pay my taxes on time. I never gave much thought to my father being a hero or not, but I guess at the end of the day he died fighting for his country.

The end result is that thirty-nine years later I have a very special relationship with my father. Every trip "home" to New Jersey the first stop - always without exception - is at my father's grave. (I'm named after my father so I'm Richard Buss III, and seeing my name [Richard Buss] on his grave is a bit strange).

Every now and then I wonder what my father was like, if he would be proud of me, and how my life would be different if he hadn't died. Certain songs or events make me think of him; There are thousands of questions I'll never have the answers for.

Instead he's become a nearly mystical figure in my life.

Hopefully this child will have everything that I have in life....

[Evil Chris]

Roch, you take no issue with the way you were brought into this world. That's a very good thing.

I just personally think that this case is a little different. This child's father has been passed on for over two years. It's only because of frozen semen that this conception was even possible. If ever there was a child born with a stigma attached, it's this one. People will forever point and say "that's the one that was born 2 years after the father died".

This case is way different, and to me, even smacks of publicity seeking.
I hope I'm incorrect.

[painful]

Roch, you take no issue with the way you were brought into this world. That's a very good thing.

I just personally think that this case is a little different. This child's father has been passed on for over two years. It's only because of frozen semen that this conception was even possible. If ever there was a child born with a stigma attached, it's this one. People will forever point and say "that's the one that was born 2 years after the father died".

This case is way different, and to me, even smacks of publicity seeking.
I hope I'm incorrect.


You also have to look at it this way. With the progress of modern medicine, this child HAS a life, born from a frozen seed. It's incredible to me that something like this can take place, and allows the mans legacy and name live on for another generation. That soldier was a smart man, and his wife is the hero for bringing this child, blood of her dead love, into the world to experience life. I am NOT a pro life person, I am pro choice, and this woman made a choice to continue her husbands memory and to keep his memory around for just a while longer. I would hope my wife would do the same (although she can't now that she's fixed :laughout: )

I hope the child grows up to learn how important his father was to America and that his father was a hero who died for freedom.

As a member of the US Armed forces, I don't always agree with the actions we are ordered to take, by our President (really an imbicile IMHO), but I take my hat off to the other men and women who have made the choice to protect our freedom.

[Panky]

I don't agree. She doesn't need to bring a child into this world to remind her of her dead husband. The child is a human being, not an object. No matter how much a wife, family, and friends miss their deceased love one, this child will never be able to bring him back or replace him. This child is a unique individual. He is not his father, nor will he ever be.

It is one thing if the woman was pregnant when he left or became pregnant with his child while on leave, but I think it is wrong to be impregnated with her husbands frozen sperm after his death. Unfortunately, he died before they were able to have children. So be it. Live with it and move on.

I'm curious to know if she chose the gender of her child and asked for a boy? Suppose she couldn't and this child was born a girl? Suppose this boy didn't look anything like his father and took after the mothers side of the family? Would she be disappointed or regret the decision?

[Rochard]

As a member of the US Armed forces, I don't always agree with the actions we are ordered to take, by our President (really an imbicile IMHO), but I take my hat off to the other men and women who have made the choice to protect our freedom.

A little off subject here, but as a member of the US armed forces, you've agreed to serve the office of the President no matter who sits behind the desk in the oval office. I don't agree with Bush or his policies, but if the President says "we go to war", well, we need to give 100% of our support.

[Rochard]

I don't agree. She doesn't need to bring a child into this world to remind her of her dead husband. The child is a human being, not an object. No matter how much a wife, family, and friends miss their deceased love one, this child will never be able to bring him back or replace him. This child is a unique individual. He is not his father, nor will he ever be.

It is one thing if the woman was pregnant when he left or became pregnant with his child while on leave, but I think it is wrong to be impregnated with her husbands frozen sperm after his death. Unfortunately, he died before they were able to have children. So be it. Live with it and move on.

I'm curious to know if she chose the gender of her child and asked for a boy? Suppose she couldn't and this child was born a girl? Suppose this boy didn't look anything like his father and took after the mothers side of the family? Would she be disappointed or regret the decision?

My mother reminds me often of how I am a constant reminder of my father (and thus her husband). Does this make me an object?

I consider it a wonderful thing.

[Panky]

Here's the difference... You were already born before your father went to Vietnam.

There's a difference between having an existing family and creating one in memory of your dead husband.

[Evil Chris]

I don't agree. She doesn't need to bring a child into this world to remind her of her dead husband. The child is a human being, not an object. No matter how much a wife, family, and friends miss their deceased love one, this child will never be able to bring him back or replace him. This child is a unique individual. He is not his father, nor will he ever be.Panky, you put it into the words that I should have in the first place.

[GinaCochina]

Whether I agree with it or not doesn't matter. I am not the one who has to raise the baby. People have brought children into the world for worse reasons, that's for sure.

[GOD]

The frozen semen story is a great cover-up for fucking her husband's brother! :D

[Evil Chris]

Whether I agree with it or not doesn't matter. I am not the one who has to raise the baby. People have brought children into the world for worse reasons, that's for sure.Very true!