Great Moments in Journalism: Every Sperm is Sacred
Great Moments in Journalism are submitted by readers, and can be sent to this address. Okay, end of the week, poll up later, you know the drill. Here's your final Moment of the week. It comes from Salon, but this time it's actually worth letting the ad run in another window of your browser until you check back; it's a Moment of pure pathos. The story concerns a man who - well, let's let Salon tell it: "When a fertility clinic mistakenly placed a client's sperm in the wrong woman, the man sued for the right to be called the baby's father. Trouble is, the law says he's nobody's daddy." As great as that is, it's not your Moment. Get ready:
The woman got pregnant, but the hospital will not tell Hayes her name or even reveal whether a child was born. Hayes believes he has a valid claim to the baby. "They put my sperm into a stranger's vagina," he says. Hayes is in his 30s, a tall, broad-shouldered hipster, with flecks of gray in his brown hair. Normally confident, he crumbles easily these days. When asked about the common assumption that men regard their sperm as expendable, he begins to cry.
We're crying too, but for different reasons.
