Much more detailed Chicago Tribune article on the sperm thingie: [link]

(Login required. Dunno of there's a Buffista login for the Tribune. If folks want I could post the whole thing here.)

tommyrot, the article came through for me, and I didn't even log on. Either I have before, and they've got a cookie on my PC, or there was a miracle.

Do you have a link for the related piece at the Wire?

Wired - it's on the front page for today, right side, toward the bottom. Dunno what the link will be after today....

Wired

Ah. That would explain why I couldn't find it at The Wire. Duh.

From the Trib article, it sounds like she hotly contests his version of events. How will they ever go about proving that? What a freaking mess.

How will they ever go about proving that?

Sound like if he can't prove his version (which is unlikely) then he's screwed. Um... or something.

If both parents agree (or if the parent giving up the child goes through all the hoops, like posting legal notifications in the paper, etc.), they can both be free of their parental obligations.

Caveat lector: A mother and father cannot terminate their parental rights just because they don't want a child. Their must be a place for the child to go besides the state foster care system, e.g. a family wishing to adopt. As Narrator said, it's to discourage parents from relying on the support of the state just because they changed their mind.

When they disagree, by one deciding to keep the child, it means both must fulfill the legal obligations (or go through whatever hoops are available to rid themselves of them) of parenting.

In a nutshell, yes.

Why should "foreseeable" assume everyone is decent?

Well, because the next logical step is, a woman pawing through the garbage of some random man she's never met, in search of a used kleenex for her impregnation purposes. I guess I'm not assuming decency so much as reasonableness.

And I don't think I can accept your analogy to rape victims -- you seem to be making a lot of assumptions to serve your analogy, whereas the options available to rape victims make the whole situation a lot more messy than that.

Do people own these? And hang them in their homes where they can peer down on them in the dark?

You think that's bad, try having The Hands Resist Him hanging over your headboard. One set of owners set up a motion detector camera because they convinced themselves that the figures were coming out of the painting and running around at night.

Aw, yesterday was Alexis Denisof's birthday -- and nobody mentioned it. Hope he had a good one.

It's today, sumi.