Chapter 11 Blog

David Komorowski
Chapter 11 Blog

Summary: In this chapter we view several reasons that may or may not lead one to become a parent as well as considerations that should be taken into consideration before becoming one. First we can see the benefits and costs of having a child—includes the benefit of a child bringing love and joy into one’s life as well as the cost of stress and money spent. We later look at the joys of pregnancy such as the kicks that a woman gets in her stomach as well as looking at the sonogram to see the baby’s sex. After this we look at the effects of parenthood—how the mother and father interact with the newborn. Some argue the child must be nurtured primarily by the mother or that the father should have a big if not bigger role. We then look at what the “right” number of children may be. Factors that can affect this are fertility, TFR or total fertility rate, etc. We then look at why fertility rate has changed as well as why many people are postponing marriage. There are several micro and macro level factors for the change in fertility rate and why many people postpone marriage. For fertility rate, some factors for the decrease are contraceptives as well as work opportunities for women being more available then before. For postponing parenthood one could look at the longer life span as well as the fear of giving up a working opportunity for women. We then look at infertility, the cause, reaction, and solution to it. STDs such as Chlamydia and others can prevent pregnancy for a woman and usually the reaction that women have to infertility is a negative one and feeling less of a person. Yet, as stated in the book, women can get around this by using adoption—transactional, open and closed, same-sex, etc—in which the child (although no blood related) could be related in every other which way due to the upbringing of the child. Along with adoption we look at medical and high-tech solutions to infertility which includes fertility drugs, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, etc. After this we finish up with a look at what can end a pregnancy or abortion. With abortion come many stipulations, consequences and benefits. Consequences can be a mental toll on the parents and benefits could be monetary as well as keeping ones career or the ability to have one.

What I learned: In looking at this chapter one thing that caught my eye was the characteristics of infertility and the many more numerous ways to become fertile than I thought existed. For example, I thought once you’re infertile it is irreversible and adoption is the only answer—how wrong I was. I had never heard of fertility drugs in which a woman can be induced to have her ovaries produce eggs more often or once again after it has stopped. Along with this I had NEVER heard of selective reduction in which you can abort some fetuses and give the others better chances. Although I believe that there are probably many religious restrictions that go against this, that when couples become desperate that anything sounds a least a little reasonable. Another thing that I think heavily impacts decisions to undergo these procedures is the increased risk of birth defects in the children.

What could have been better? In reading the same-sex adoption part of the chapter I think that a lot of factors that impact it were either looked over or not elaborated on enough. I believe that although same-sex adoption is not nearly as prevalent—due to laws against same-sex marriage and adoption within almost 80 % of the country—that the book should at least go into the possible benefits and costs of having same sex parents that aren’t yours. One could point at dysfunctional families with heterosexual parents and say that that is ten times worse than a functional gay couple adopting. This is obviously a very small portion of what could be added to the section on same-sex adoption but I do believe regardless it should be elaborated on.