hutch (02/08/83)
I post this to both of these groups because it seems relevant to both groups. A friend of mine (my next door neighbor) has decided to become a single parent. She is doing so, not because of desire to be a single parent, but because she has a chronic condition which will require that she undergoes a hysterectomy within the next two years. She is not married, has no plans to marry in the near future and she has undergone tests to verify her fitness for artificial insemination. The major problems were with her feeling that her minister would try to talk her out of it. The grounds for his arguments were supposedly something like, "how will you be able to work and still give the baby all the attention it will need?" He seems not to have mentioned anything about the "naturalness" of the methods, nor made any insinuation of "fornication" or "adultery" but of course, anyone who is not acquainted with all the facts may well jump to such a conclusion, and she is aware of that likelihood. The interesting side effects of her decision have been felt mostly in her circle of friends. Some of them make the assumption that she plans to "go out and trap some guy" and others (the majority) think that it is a wonderful thing. The usual reaction is reserved until or unless they know why she has decided to have her baby. By the way most of these friends are members of her church, which is a "charismatic" church. Does anyone out there know of any similar cases? Steve Hutchison ... decvax!tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!hutch