Just your typical boy-meets-girl, girl has son-who-then-tragically-dies-so-she-harvests-his-sperm-to-mother-her-future-grandchild story. No, this is not a script from a telenovela, but the real life narrative of Marissa Evans, 44, who lost her son to a brain injury that resulted from a bar fight. Before Nikolas Evans, 21, succumbed to his injuries, he told his mom he wished he would live to become a father. After he died, she vowed to make his (?) dream come true by using his sperm to father her biological grandchild.
Evans is not carrying the child herself (because that would be creepy). She has an egg donor and surrogate in Mexico, but she will raise her grandchild on her own. Now, deep down, I’m a softie and totally get the sentiment behind this act, but this is just too much. She’s going against the natural order of how things played out, yet we have access to modern medicine so she should have the right to make such drastic life choices, right? I don’t know, nerds. What do you think about this one?
Sometimes the dead are dead. And you need to grieve for the loss of your loved ones but also to celebrate their life. I feel that medical technology is allowing people to circumvent that natural process. Her grandchild is not going to be her son. The baby should not be a replacement for her son. Just saying.
People need to mind their own business
You know, some people need to grow a brain. Just cause he died due to a bar-fight doesn’t mean he was an idiot, maybe he got drunk and pissed off the wrong guy, who then in turn took it too far. It’s just silly to think that there are so many people out there who think “you must be stupid if you get in a bar-fight” they happen one way or the other, but clearly this one ended badly. Along the lines of incest, it isn’t like she’s putting the sperm in herself, she just wants her dead son’s wish to be a father(biologically only) to come true. All in all, people drink, even if it isn’t the smartest idea, you never know what will happen, my wife’s uncle, mind you had never drank any before this incident, got drunk and lost grasp of who he was, and killed his room mate. Granted that was a bad idea, he didn’t know that would happen, so all you people that think he was stupid for getting in a bar fight, you try drinking, insulting someone, and coming out unscathed.
Check out the movie Womb, starring Doc Who’s own Matt Smith. Goes along the lines of this story, but takes it much further into the realm of terribly creepy.
The “natural order” of things is that humans are very clever apes: we can engineer our procreation. I think that some people need to start giving up on their quaint notions of propriety. I wish this child the best life that our modern world can provide.
This article was written to lead stupid people to the wrong conclusion,the truth is if your son and his wife died but there one year old survived you would raise it as your grandchild. The difference is he didnt get a chance to have a child, so she is letting him have a child and is going to raise it. There is no incest or anything like that, granted it is odd but there is no legal grey area, it would be legal in the USA, sorry for having to clarify.
Creepiness aside I just find this to be very selfish on the mothers part. She should wait awhile, allow for a greiving period, and then make this kind of decision. Seems to me like she wants to bring back her son’s memory through another child which isn’t really fair to that soon to be new kid and seems like it is more for her than anything else. Get a dog lady.
If this had ten or twenty years from now she could of just cloned him instead or used a ganger
Oops! My mis-read is duly noted. My second point I believe still applies.
Nothing wrong with a woman who uses a surrogate to carry a child. Nothing wrong with a grieving mother who wants to hold on to a piece of her dead child. And she’s young enough to be a good parent to the baby. I would not do the same in her position, but to each their own.
This is just as strange as people who clone their pets.
Yep, that sentence pretty much sums it up!
That’s just creepy. How the hell would you even begin to explain that to the child when it’s older???
Imagine had to tell your kid that there adopted…. Now imagine telling the kid there dad died before they were born… NOw imagine you have to tell the kid its mom is some mexican lady you paid to conceive you…. NOW imagine your the kid having to explain that to your friends and shit!
Is this any creepier than the woman who harvested her female fetus’ eggs to have grandchildren?
She’s only 44, she could have another child of her own. I don’t see why she has to bring her dead son into this. The result will be about the same, whether she’s the grandmother or mother, she will be the one taking care of the child.
Creepy and pointless. This is a child that the dead son never knew of. If she wanted to do something she could have become a volunteer, a foster parent or adopted a child. Plenty of children would love a safe and stable home. Didn’t need to do this.
Have you seen Marissa’s dad’s blog? He’s 72, and when he heard what had happened, he said, “Hey, Marissa. What about me?”
Devil’s advocate here… Maybe her son was being a stand up guy and protecting a friend when he was injured in the bar fight. Don’t assume the dead guy was a d-bag with irresponsible parents just because he died from injuries sustained in the fight when no information has been provided about the circumstances of the fight.
Back on topic. It does creep me out a bit. I’d be devastated if my son died, but I wouldn’t want to be so selfish and create a grandchild with a dead father and surrogate mother s/he would probably never know. Actually, that’s it. I’m not creeped out. It doesn’t make me feel icky. But it is an extremely selfish act on her part.
I think that the next step in evolving as a society is moving past our sentimentality over genetic bonds. Pretty much every problem we’re facing can be traced back to overpopulation so our instinct to carry on our genetic lines is obsolete, in fact a hindrance. If she wants a child to care for, there are plenty who still need homes. Logic aside, I just find this kind of creepy.
This would creep me out way less if it were wife and (deceased) husband. I could get behind that. This woman needs a hobby.
@Jim – Every human being that is born is a potential dumbass.
Okay, for the entire first paragraph I was thinking “WTF is wrong with that woman?!! That is just sick!”, then came the part that she didn’t carry the child herself and I was relieved.
I don’t think she is acting on her sons behalf, she might think she is, but ultimately she is doing this for herself and in my opinion she shouldn’t have done this, but people have the right to make their own decisions, but I highly doubt her son would have agreed with this course of action if he knew about it.
Apart from the creepy factor… we have more humans than we need already without having to use deceased humans to increase the world’s population. I do feel bad for her loss.
Well, that’s… creepy. I was very relieved when I read she would not be carrying the child, but still…
Presumably she raised her son… which obviously didn’t turn out that well seeing as he died from a bar fight (injuries caused by). Soooo… she wants a ‘do-over’.
Just cause you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Yeah, she did such a wonderful job raising her son that he was in a bar fight that cost him his life. Get real. the world doesn’t really need another potential dumbass.
@Brendan — She’s using an egg donor, so it’s not incest.
What a heartwarming story for World Population Day!
( http://www.un.org/en/events/populationday/ )
Sounds more like a plotline from Gray’s Anatomy than a legit news item, if you ask me.
Son got clobbered in a bar fight so mom raises his kid. I think that story has been told, this version just has a sci-fi twist. But only for the first chapter.
What do I think? I think, “Who cares?” She isn’t doing anything illegal, of questionable morality, or particularly groundbreaking technologically.
At first, I was under the impression SHE was both carrying the child and using her eggs and, yes, TOO MUCH. Just using her son’s sperm to make her grandchild? I’m more on the fence on that issue. Sounds like that kid would be heaped all the expectations for both a grandchild and whatever she’d project regarding her dead son. Taking that into account, hell no. Just using genetic material to continue on a bloodline? In another situation, say a husband and wife, who were trying to have a kid and the husband died before they were able to? That might fly as “relatively normal” in my brain.
There are a lot of reasons why incest is illegal, and the biological ramifications of a woman mothering her own grandchild are reason enough that this is horrific. That poor kid is at a massively high risk for any number of debilitating congenital problems.
However, it’s also something of a legal gray area that she was even able to extract sperm from her son while he was comatose. It brings up lots of other questions about the implicit right to protect ones’ own genetic material, many of which are being fought over today in courts as corporations attempt to claim copyright on such biological properties. Surprising to me (as a Texan) that this even happened in TX.
Let’s just say that there’s a reason you have to go to Mexico to get shit like this done…
Well isn’t that just the creepiest thing you ever heard. Plus like…How did she obtain his sperm? And old sock?