In the most recent issue of The Advocate, a LGBT magazine, Thomas Beatie, a transgender male, published an article entitled “Labor of Love: Is society ready for this pregnant husband?” Beatie was born a female yet decided to undergo chest reconstruction surgery and testosterone therapy in order to become a transgender male. He did, however, decide to keep his female reproductive organs. While undergoing testosterone therapy his body did not produce any eggs, but once he stopped the therapy he would be able to conceive and bear a child.
Because his wife, Nancy, was infertile, the couple made the decision that Beatie would carry their child instead of a surrogate. Although Beatie was physically able to become pregnant, the couple met heavy resistance from society. Beatie wrote, “Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us.” The couple had to go through nine doctors in order to conceive because of the unwillingness of doctors to help Beatie conceive.
Beatie acknowledged the significance of his decision to become pregnant, writing, “Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns.” Many in society do not know how to handle such a situation, and one doctor even questioned whether or not Beatie and Nancy were “fit to bring a child into this world” (Beatie); the doctor was so hesitant that he brought the issue to the ethics board of his hospital.
Beatie ends his article asking his readers to define for themselves what is normal. He will end up with society’s standard definition of a normal family, a mother, father, and child, but in an unconventional way (the pregnancy of the father, not mother). Beatie does nothing ethically wrong in this situation, his desire for a child simply challenges the conventions of society. His pregnancy makes many uncomfortable, just because this is venturing into uncharted territory. Unlike cases of genetic engineering where we can cite specific reasons as to why such procedures should not be allowed, a case like this, where both parents so desperately want a child that they are willing to whatever it takes, is difficult to find reasons to object. After the child, a girl due on July 3, 2008, is born, no one will know that anything out of the ordinary has happened within this family. It will be interested to follow this story to the birth of this couple’s daughter.
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Upon reading this post I was completely dumbfounded as to how to react to it. I am all for adoption, surrogate mothers, in vitro fertilization by straight and gay couples, but when it comes to this situation there is something so inherently wrong and unnatural about it that simply makes me want to yell.. WT*?!
I don’t think that the issue with the controversy lies with the family unit. Often times, perfectly physically and mentally healthy children are raised by someone other than a traditional mother and father figure. Sometimes is an aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings, adoptive parents, gay couples, etc. etc.
I think that the answer lies with the fact that the “father” is so indecisive in his own gender role. If she was so convinced that she wanted to be male, then why keep her female reproductive organs? I feel like the whole idea of someone feeling that they are meant to be a member of the opposite sex to be inherently wrong to begin with, but putting those feeling aside- why not go all the way? This self identity crisis that the transgender male is having is definitely an inhibitory factor towards raising a mentally stable child.
And besides, when the child asks how he came to this earth, what are the parents going to tell them? At the age at which a child is able to ask such questions he has seen plenty of pregnant women and understands the fact that a woman is always child bearer.
This is definitely a case of where science has gone too too too far.
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