Sperm donor legal issues
Re: “Five more families join lawsuit against doctor accused of inseminating patients,” Dec. 6 news story
Ethics aside, I don’t see how the Grand Junction doctor accused of inseminating his fertility patients did anything wrong. He promised “anonymous donor sperm” that would lead to a viable pregnancy. That’s exactly what he delivered — literally.
In the 1970s and ’80s, who would have believed that you could send off a little saliva and some money and find out your parentage? The articles I read in The Denver Post say these children’s parents “may not be who they think they are.” Who do they think they are? Don’t they understand the term “anonymous donor?”
I am a retired biology teacher. I understand the ethical problem and that the AMA should have a problem with doctors who use their own sperm. I just don’t understand the legal problem based on the knowledge available at the time the pregnancy was conceived. Forty years ago, these parents got what they paid for even though they didn’t get full disclosure. Is a 40-year-old breach of ethics grounds for legal action today?
Cynthia Fite, Lakewood
Past their bedtimes
Re: “In a nod to biology, area school districts look to later start times,” Dec. 6 news story
So schools say students fare better in and out of classrooms with more sleep. So they want to start classes at a later time. I say, if they go to bed at a decent hour, they will get their full eight hours of sleep instead of being up until 1 or 2 in the morning on their cellphones. They won’t have to start classes at a later time. This is as bad as schools that want to buy air conditioners for classrooms because it’s too hot when they should start two weeks later in September instead of in August. Schools teach children. Who teaches the schools?
Leroy M. Martinez, Denver
The fine print in surprise billing
Re: “This Black Friday, beware unfair forced arbitration,” Nov. 28 commentary
T.A. Taylor-Hunt’s column expressing concerns about arbitration landmines buried in the fine print of purchase agreements was good advice. This same cautionary note should be sent to those trying to deal with surprise billing by using arbitration. The average consumer is not equipped to use alternative dispute resolution in place of hiring an attorney to litigate. Most people have been told that insurance must pay for emergency room coverage. Every medical provider’s phone answering system tells you to go to the emergency room or call 911.
What they don’t tell you is the cost of the ambulance or for the emergency departments’ out-of-network providers. Today’s health care system is run by amoral people who treat it as an extractives industry. Consumers would do well to read the fine print.
Francis Miller, Parker
The very definition of a loan
Re: “Broken promises and debt pile up,” Nov. 29 news story
Why would taxpayers want to pay off federal student loans? Whatever happened to the tried and true notion that if you commit to accepting a loan, you pay off that loan? Millions of people every year sign for a house loan, a car loan, a home-equity loan, a pawnshop loan, a credit card advance, etc. They make payments throughout the year and eventually pay off their loans.
There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s pretty simple; you don’t have money, you borrow money, you use that money, and then you pay it back. Can you imagine if lending companies would forgive your home loan or your car loan just because, geez, you can’t pay it off? We can’t forgive this type of loan. Maybe tuition expenses have been exorbitant throughout the past 100 years. Are we getting the true benefits of what we’re paying for in our universities? That’s what should be addressed.
James Ruscetta, Littleton
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