Friday, July 3, 2015

Motherhood, Love, and the Ethics of Bearing Life

In 6 hours I'm getting up to go to a fertility clinic for a consult on egg banking options before I start chemotherapy. The clinic is at UIC--where I hope(d) to complete my BSN.  I wonder what it will feel like to walk on the campus, imagine an alternate life where I'm not sick, not thinking about surviving to the new year, facing questions about the viability of my haploids, how committed I was to cutting open my abdomen and scooping out an ovary on the off chance that I decide to have a child of my own one day.  Is it even  ethical or moral to have a relationship with anyone, to get married, or what about not doing either but having a child anyway, when I know the risks of relapse are so high, and the survival rates so low?