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Gay Divorce The latest attempt to get same-sex marriage laws on the books ironically centers around the dissolution of same-sex relationships. In the state of Texas (Texas!), where SSM initiatives were rejected by a 3-1 margin at the voting booth, this tactic has surfaced. Dr J and Todd Wilken have more on this story. (Click the POD icon.)

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Greetings to the several hundred new subscribers who join us from North Carolina, Boston, Dallas, Berkeley and the Catholic Answers Live Radio audience! We hope you are finding encouragement and information in these newsletters.
This week’s main article is by Ruth Institute Board Member, Jennifer Lahl. Jennifer is one of the country’s leading experts on bioethics, including artificial reproductive technology. You may wonder: why is the Ruth Institute, an organization that promotes lifelong married love to college students, writing to us about artificial Reproductive Technology?

The answer is simple: Artificial Reproductive Technology is becoming a substitute for marriage for many young people.

1. People are substituting ART for the sexual act, as a means of “making babies.” The sexual act used to be charmingly referred to as “the marital act.” People are replacing the embrace of another human being within the confines of marriage, with the laboratory, the test tube and a whole lot of artificial hormones.

2. Women in particular are postponing marriage with the idea that if “Mr. Right” doesn’t come along, she can always have a baby artificially. ART is distorting women’s decision-making.

3. Those very same young people are putting themselves at risk, morally and physically, by “donating” their eggs and sperm for other people’s use. Jennifer Lahl’s article this week details some of the very real, and underreported hazards associated with egg donation.

You can learn more about Jennifer Lahl’s work, and her organization, the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, at their website.

The ART issue is one more way in which Regular Ruth Readers are on the cutting edge of the marriage movement. We keep you informed about the whole range of marriage and life issues, including some that are not on anyone else’s radar screen. If you read the Ruth Institute newsletter faithfully every week, you will be among the best-informed people on every aspect of the marriage issue.

We want to invite each and every one of our readers to help us spread the message of lifelong married love to our college students and to the culture as a whole. Here are some things you can do right now, before you leave this message, to help promote marriage!

1. Forward this e-mail to five of your friends, and invite them to sign up for the Ruth Institute newsletter. (The sign up page on our website is here.) We currently have 7,306 subscribers. With your help, we can double that by the end of May!

2. Invite your college-aged friends and relatives to apply for our college student Leadership conference, It Takes a Family to Raise a Village. Last year’s crop of students had an absolute blast and learned tons! This conference will be held in Southern California from August 12-15. The deadline is coming up May 21, so don’t delay! The conference webpage is here.

3. Join me on facebook! You can become my facebook friend. Or you can become a fan of the Ruth Institute. That way, you can very easily spread our ideas to your other facebook friends, people we might not ever have a chance to meet otherwise. Right now, I have 1,500 facebook friends, and the Ruth Institute has just under 500 fans. Help Ruth catch up with me! Facebooking is fun! Try it out!

4. Finally, make a contribution to support our work in promoting lifelong married love. No gift is too large or too small! We appreciate every one of our fantastic donors! You can donate on-line here.

I enjoy meeting all of you during my travels. And I continue to feel overwhelmed with gratitude for all of your support and encouragement.

Your friend,
Dr Morse

as told to Jennifer Lahl, M.A., Director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, and Ruth Institute Advisory Board member

I volunteered to harvest eggs for a friend, whose ovaries had ceased producing eggs in her early 30’s. She bought donated sperm from a California university sperm bank several years prior to my egg harvest and was being counseled about infertility options. This was not an “eggs for money” contract. I volunteered without a compensation obligation.

My experience began with an appointment to determine if I was a qualified egg producing candidate. I was 30 “something,” athletic, bright, employed as a professional, and married, with no children-yet. I talked to my husband and friends about it and their main concern was the medical risks to me.

My husband (who has children from a previous marriage) agreed to be supportive and the appointments with the psychologist were scheduled – one with me alone and one with my husband and I. The questions were general and focused on my benevolence notwithstanding my being childless. The psychologist completed notes for the file and my husband and I signed a general acknowledgement of “counseling.”

I am a marathon runner and I was asked to stop running two months before the hormone drugs and estrogen level testing began. I was told that the mileage of my training would inhibit the follicle production and the clinic demanded as much control over my lifestyle as possible. I stopped running in January 1992.

I scheduled the clinic appointments and initiated administering the drugs in March 1992. After 21 days, I had 35 Lupron injections, which were self-administered in my thigh, daily, for synchronization with my friend receiving the eggs; daily estrogen level testing; and followed with several Pergonal injections to hyperstimulate my ovaries to produce the mature eggs, which my husband administered. Then I received the final injection to release the eggs for the surgical egg retrieval process. When the clinic determined my hormones levels were ready for egg retrieval, the hospital appointment was scheduled and more paperwork was signed, including, the infertility doctor and anesthesiologist forms. I had headaches, abdomen bloating and extreme lethargy which the clinic indicated were normal side affects.

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