If a woman and a man invest in a tomato plant, and they both take care of the plant, do you think they both have a right to the fruits of that plant?
Now, what if the man gives the woman some tomato seeds as a gift (perhaps the act of giving her the seeds was an enjoyable experience) and she plants the seeds, waters them, and manages to grow a plant from the those seeds? Would the man then have a right to a tomato?
More importantly, what if the man gives the woman the seeds, she grows a whole shitload of tomatoes, then decides to throw them against the side of her house like some kind of raving lunatic? Does the guy have the right to get a legal injunction against her, simply because he gave the woman his seeds?
Most importantly of all (please bear with me for one last, inane analogy), what if the woman harvests all these goddamn tomatoes with some poor slob's seeds even though he asked her not to grow any tomatoes after he gave her the seeds, and now she needs to buy a wheelbarrow to carry all the tomatoes? Does the guy need to pay "wheelbarrow support"?
By now, I've either chased you away, or enticed you in some bizarre way to continue reading. Hey, it's your brain, your choice.
What prompted me to write this was a recent story about a sperm donor who was ordered by a judge to pay child support. After reacting with a comment along the lines of "You gotta be fucking kidding me?" I decided to think through rationally my arguments against this.
When a woman gets pregnant, it's "her body", right? This is the primary argument for the right to abortion. In other words, the clump of cells residing in her body is not somehow co-owned by her and the guy she slept with. To all intents and purposes, the guy made a sperm donation. Notwithstanding a contract to the contrary, the sperm was a gift, not a loan.
Which is why, when the time comes to decide whether to abort, it is the woman's decision alone. But what if she decides not to abort? What are the man's responsibilities if the woman decides to carry the fetus to term?
