There is one comment by him that I found to be the most telling. "Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire." I agree with this statement, however he is missing the fundamental meaning behind it. A man has a specific function in the fathering of a child, and a women has hers. It is not the position of the man to carry the child, whether you want to call it religion or biology. If this gives off a chauvinist feel, I apologize; but it is the fact of the matter.
An example of this is when a woman is ready to have a child, something changes in her, both physically and mentally. I've seen a woman who notices young children playing at a park, immediately begin to grasp her stomach; feeling the emotional tug of wanting to carry a child. I challenge you to find me a man who performs the same action given the situation. Therefore is Thomas Beatie now a woman trapped in a man's body? His inherent instinct to carry a child is indicative of that.
Lastly, has he or his wife ever thought about what this family dynamic will be mean to the child. Will they lie to the child and say that his wife carried it, or pretend that its not a an issue at all and say that he did? I personally feel this situation to be horrific, but I'm attempting to analyze it from the content of the article. Again, I apologize if this is offending; I just feel this situation to be awful.
I think your response to the articles and to Thomas Beatie's story is both normal and understandable. However, I think there are some key points in the articles that help explain the situation. First, the couple wanted to have conceive a child but the wife was unable to bear children after previous medical problems. Thomas says in one of the articles that if his wife was able to bear children, they would have done it that way, but there was no choice in the matter. Second, I think the reason that we as a society believe that a woman's role in having a child is to be the pregnant one is because we usually associate women with having reproductive parts that allow them to carry children. Thomas Beatie has those female reproductive parts but is legally a man. It became his role to carry the baby in that specific relationship. Lastly, the articles say how Thomas and his wife do not plan on lying to their child or hiding the truth. They do not feel ashamed or uncomfortable with their situation; it just happens to be the way things worked out in life for them and they will let their daughter know the truth. I don't feel like the family dynamic will be thrown off as the child will still have a mother and a father taking care of her. The only problems may arise when the child goes out into the world and experiences comments from outsiders, but then again, people experience the same thing for other reasons like race or class; the child won't be completely isolated.
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