by
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
It
started with philosophers sitting around observing the world around
them and extrapolating on how things worked, which they could not
actually see. Anything related to sex was naturally of extreme
interest, the profession of philosopher being entirely male.
Theophrastus,
Hippocrates, Aristotle and Aeschylus, weighed in with theories of how
babies came about. Then one of them, likely, in 458 BC, who must
have had very good eyesight, looked closely at some sperm, which he
reportedly held in his hand. He deduced that sperm were tiny human
beings, homunculi, which would be planted in the womb of the woman.
He then proposed the interesting theory that the male was the only
real parent of the child, the female carrying out the role of "nurse
for the young life sown within her".
In
the 1700s this interesting theory received more attention and back up
through the work of Dutch microscopist Anton
van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723). Anton discovered what he
called "animalcules" in the sperm of
humans and other animals. You can imagine these fellows peering
intently into the lens of their microscope.
These scientists started
a school of thought known as the "spermists" repeating the
original contention of Aeschylus that the only contributions of the
female were to provide the womb.
The Theory of the
Homunculus was noted by legal sages who were writing law and became
the justification for giving fathers the entire legal control of the
children born to his wife.
Naturally, this ignored
the room and board, so to speak, the woman had provided for nine plus
months and the related services of nourishing and caring for the
child after the often painful and dangerous process of birth was
completed.
If you calculate the
entire biological capitalization needed to produce a baby, conception
to birth, ownership, or liability, would be viewed very differently,
of course.
Sperm generally have a
negative value since men must pay to give them away. Human eggs cost
around $8,000, ready to be fertilized and implanted. Payment for
gestation services runs up to $100,000. Therefore, the
capitalization of the baby making, calculated monetarily, is around:
Male 1 Share, Female 99,000 Shares.
This example of using
theory to make law without thoroughly thinking through the
ramifications and objectively assessing each contribution to the
entire process is a useful exercise today.
It gives us a moment to
pause and consider many other issues which need rethinking.
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