Respect and Value the Others Life

Morality and ethics are part of the human being and behavior. They are part of everyday life, people are using it regularly, even without noticing it. Humans are born with morality, they already have it, but ethics is something that they learn. Ethics teaches how to behave and act in society, and what is right or wrong. But do people really know what is right and what is not? Or are they just following their own thoughts? How can one decide if something is right or wrong? Is there a rule for what is accepted and expected by ethics or not?

A lot of questions had been come up regarding ethics and morality, and none of them are easy to answer.

There is no good answer to them, society is not able to decide what is truly right and wrong. Moral value is objective, and one can’t decide precisely what is right and wrong. But thinking through examples, a ‘story’, these speculations could be approached from a different angle and might be answered.

In a particular case, a wealthy couple used the sperm of their dead son to create a new heir. As an only child, the son could have had everything, but unfortunately, he had a terrible accident and died. They extracted the sperm from the dead body and used them to ‘create’ a baby. During the process, donor eggs and surrogate was used. The couple could even choose the gender of the baby. They choose the donor mother too, who would have perfectly matched their son. The baby was born and now lives with his grandparents. What a ‘great’ story, with a nice happy ending. The father died, but the parents were able to ‘recreate’ him, and live happily ever after with the new hire. But what about the moral facts that show up in this case?

There are several moral issues regarding this action, so the answer is clear: no, it’s not right. It’s not accepted morally or ethically. There’s the issue of consent, going against Mother Nature and not thinking about the consequences. People are the agents of their acts, and these actions generate consequences. Sometimes (especially in the case of the wealthy couple) people have the free will, and they have to take responsibility for their actions. Even if there is a natural process, a Circle of Life, humans can control their own decisions. They just can’t control the big process, Nature itself. Trying to break this process, there are expected to be consequences, and the generators are the one to blame for. Which means humans.

Nature has its own cycle, humans and all the creatures are just part of it. Nature is both the ‘writer’ of the story and the ‘narrator’. People are not guiding the Life, but are the component, the characters of it. Even if they try to take over to control, they are just part of this huge, incredible process. Using science and technology, the planet is developing, people create new things using their knowledge and experience. But they don’t realize that what they created is not natural. Is not made by Mother Nature, it’s just an experiment. People don’t realize that they create things, that cause consequences. They think that by using science and technology they can rule the world, and everything is possible. And maybe it could be in the big perspective, but what if the focus is on the individual? What if one person is asked in the situation? What if, for example, the dead man didn’t want to have a son? The couple clearly wanted to have a boy, so they used gender-selection to ‘create’ it. This action is definitely not a natural process. Anything about this baby’s birth was natural. The sperm was extracted from a dead man, they had been frozen for one year. By using donor eggs and surrogate, it was possible to ‘create’ baby and even choosing its gender.

What about consent? From the dead man’s perspective it is very likely he didn’t give his consent to create a son from his sperm. He didn’t have the choice to choose if wants a son or not, if he wants his sperm to be used or not. He died, and his parents made the decision without him. Maybe he didn’t want a son, maybe hadn’t yet arrived at that stage in his life where he was ready to have a family. Even if the parents claim that once in a while he would like to have a baby and a family, it is not sure that he really wanted. Or that he would agree on the way his parents arranged the procedure. His wish wasn’t considered, his opinion was forgotten, and it was even easier to do the decision without him since he was dead. He didn’t have the free will, he couldn’t actually take part in the ’story’, even if he was the ‘main character’. The parents wanted to replace him, to clone him, and to have someone that could inherit their wealth. They couldn’t cope with the grief and desperately wanted to get back their son.

From the parent’s perspective, it is a very selfish choice. Not having the son’s consent, just using his sperm to ‘create’ a baby as a new heir. They didn’t ask anyone’s consent, nor the mother’s nor the father’s. They made a choice behalf of everyone else who was involved in the baby’s birth. They weren’t part of it, they just made the choice, and they probably didn’t think about the consequences. What if their son didn’t want a baby? What if the mother didn’t want a baby from a dead man? How is going to be the baby’s life? Did the parents even think about what did they, do or did they just think about their wealth? They had the money to do all the procedure, they had the money to travel to California, and they had the money to pay

everything that was necessary. This shows that the parents were really dedicated to this process, they really decided to go through all this and didn’t back off. They took the risk and stuck to their decision. The couple even chose the donor eggs and surrogate. They chose what kind of woman would be perfect for their son, who he would marry one day, and have a family. They made a decision without the mother and the father, and ‘created’ a baby by using technology, just because they wanted their wealth to be in good hands. They were conscious of their actions, they had the free will. They chose to do this, and they did it, so they are considered as the ‘bad guys’.

What about the doctor? What part did he have in this case? He was the one who gave a chance to the parents, who gave them to hope that this process could be carried out. He was part of this, as much as the parents. He didn’t care about the consent, maybe because he didn’t know what happened, maybe because it was easier not think about it. He didn’t respect the memory of the dead man, he didn’t respect the unborn child, he didn’t respect the donor mother. Even though he was a professional, he was part of this process and helped the couple do something morally not acceptable. His role is controversial, because the main idea wasn’t his, and he just helped going truth the procedures. But since he was part of it, he was part of something that was morally wrong. He took part in this case, even if he was an intelligent doctor, and helped the parents break the law. He was conscious of his actions too. He had to choose to say no the couple, and not to help them with the process. He had his free will to choose if he wants to take part in something wrong or not. So even if he is not the ‘worst character’ in this story, he is between the ‘bad guys’.

But what about the baby? He didn’t choose to be an experiment, a replacement of his dead father. How could he grow up with the thought that his father was dead, and they used his sperm to ‘create’ him? How could he grow up with the thought that his mother didn’t want him, that he was just part of an experiment? How could he live with the fact that he doesn’t have real parents? His grandparents made the choice to ‘create’ him because they had the intention to save their inheritance. They wanted to have someone that could take care of their wealth. The kid has to live with the fact that he is not a baby made of love. He doesn’t have a real family, he doesn’t have a normal, usual life. He has to coexist with the awful reality, that he was just the clone of his father. His grandparents wanted to replace him, they couldn’t cope with the grief and the thought that they lost their only child. He has to grow up with all the things that happened before he was even born. He is likely to have personality disorders, regarding the fact that he doesn’t have real parents, the fact that he was part of an experiment. It could be said that he isn’t even a real human since he wasn’t made in a natural process, he is like a robot. He is not the son of Mother Nature, he wasn’t born like everyone else. All these facts could cause serious mental issues and disorders. The most important thing in a kid’s life is their parents. Kids learn everything from them, they copy their behavior and try to act like them. Parents are the closest persons in one’s life, they are safeness, devotion and unconditional love. They accept and love their kids as they are, and no matter what, always stand by their side. So how can a kid live without this eternal love? How will a kid learn how to love and share love, if he didn’t have his real parents to teach him? How will a kid find the balance in his life, when everything seems to collapse? How will he manage to go through the tough days, when his mother isn’t there to hold his hand and tell him that it’s just a bad day, and eventually everything will be fine? Where will be his father who will teach him to ride a bike, and play soccer with him? He will have no memories of his real parents. He will have no pictures of his parents wedding or of his beautiful pregnant mother. He will have no pictures of his birth, his mother holding him in her hands. Is that right, that this kid won’t have these beautiful memories, that he will never have the chance to think and talk about his parents? How will he feel in school, where everyone is going to talk about their family, their parents? When he sees his friends arriving and leaving school holding their mother’s hands? How will he feel when he has to introduce his first girlfriend to his grandparents? How could he explain to anyone, that he is just a replacement of his father, who died in a motorcycle accident, and his parents harvested his sperm, in order to ‘create’ a new hire? How could he talk about the process of his birth? Will he think about this as something good or bad? Will he even think, or the grandparents will do everything behalf of him, as they did before? Will he have the free will? Or he has to live his whole life as an experiment, the replacement of his father, the new hire.

Respect is another huge fact that had been forgotten in this case. Firstly, there was no respect for the dead man. The couple didn’t respect their own son’s memory, by trying to replace him. They didn’t respect his opinion, his wish and just followed their own head. The doctor also didn’t respect him, he was the one who made this process possible, and arranged it. Probably he was doing it for the money. Secondly, the baby hadn’t been respected. It wasn’t his choice to be the outcome of this story. He was just part of this insane process, he was the victim of the story. He is the consequence, that has the big question: What will happen now? How will he live his life, how will he manage to survive in a world, where all the people were born naturally, and he was born by technology? He was not conscious about the process, he didn’t have the free will to be part of this, he was the ‘victim’, the ‘outcome’, the successful experiment itself. He supposed to be the ‘happy ending’ of this story, but in fact, he was just the terrible reality, the son of thoughtlessness, desperateness, and selfishness.

As a conclusion, it is clear that this case is not usual, and creates a lot of speculations. There was no consent, there was no natural process. Everything was decided by two people, behalf of the actual participants. There was a lack of free will, lack of consciousness. The ones who were conscious, they had the responsibility for this action, but they couldn’t make the right decision. Although it can’t be accurately said if the ‘story’ was right or wrong, humans are not even sure what is right and what is wrong, because the moral value is objective, but it is sure that his case was morally not acceptable. Even if the word ‘wrong’ cannot be used, all the facts show that morally and ethically is not accepted. People should respect each other, they should respect and value the others life and memory. Because at the end we are all the same, part of a huge, natural, unpredictable process.

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