It is hard to imagine many people being inimical to the newly mandated purpose of egg nuclear transfer, which is to give infertile couples a chance to start a family. But are we ready to view homosexual couples as clinically infertile? Will we define basic human reproductive rights as being available to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation?

During our correspondence, it became very clear that MacKellar is against the use of egg nuclear transfer by homosexual couples to create genetic offspring -- for "theological reasons." Park-Rogers, on the other hand, asserts that "any time we're looking at new ways to reproduce, we need to look at what's [ethically] best for families and children. So I would hate to see homophobic discrimination take part in blocking this in any way."

The scientific community spends millions of dollars on infertility research; couples spend millions on infertility treatment. Infertile couples everywhere have moral, ethical and legislative support as they struggle to have offspring. How would we justify the limitation of this expense and support to heterosexuals? Who deserves to have genetic offspring?

Those who have challenged the prerogative of infertile couples to have children often allude to concerns about overpopulation, the unnaturalness of reproduction via a laboratory setting or the great numbers of orphaned children available for adoption. But as MacKellar points out, most of us are driven to have offspring who look and act like us. Whether this is due to our quest for immortality or the hypothetical selfish genes (the idea that DNA has devised ways to perpetuate itself regardless of the organisms housing it), it is a drive that exists and cannot be denied.

Some may argue that a government -- any government -- does not have jurisdiction over a person's right to bear children and should not pass laws to govern a person's DNA. But like it or not, legislation will dictate which direction we end up taking in this matter. (Even as I write this, MacKellar notifies me that scientists have proposed another way in which men could make babies of their own -- by reprogramming cells from cloned embryos to change what was to become sperm to become an egg.)

Eventually, lawmakers will have to give in to the pressures of scientific progress, if not progressive thinking. Yet even if researchers are permitted to bring these technologies into reality, it could be four more years -- maybe fewer but most likely more -- until anyone, even heterosexual couples, would benefit from them. One hopes that, in that time, a principle of fairness will prevail and the law will be clear, so that use of reproductive technologies will center not on discriminatory doctrines but on the fundamental rights of freedom and choice.

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