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ysabetwordsmithFrozen embryos are children, Ala. high court says in unprecedented ruling
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people and someone can be held liable for destroying them, a decision that reproductive rights advocates say could imperil in vitro fertilization (IVF) and affect the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on treatments like it each year.
I cracked up laughing. See, here's the thing about frozen embryos: storing them isn't cheap. Alabama is going to hemorrhage money. After all, if the parents can't afford to pay the fertility clinic for maintenance, and the clinic isn't providing that service for free, who's on the hook for those "children" now? Alabama Family Services.
Of course, in theory, they could hire surrogates to birth the babies, but that's expensive too. Then AFS would have to pay someone else to raise them, since they're unwanted. That's if you can pry the parental rights away from the people who provided the genetic material, which is not easy, as demonstrated by many previous divorce battles over embryos. More money down the drain. Let's not forget, Alabama is Deep South which is dirt-poor compared to the North already.
Congratulations, Alabama, you just punched the Tar Baby. Have fun with that.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people and someone can be held liable for destroying them, a decision that reproductive rights advocates say could imperil in vitro fertilization (IVF) and affect the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on treatments like it each year.
I cracked up laughing. See, here's the thing about frozen embryos: storing them isn't cheap. Alabama is going to hemorrhage money. After all, if the parents can't afford to pay the fertility clinic for maintenance, and the clinic isn't providing that service for free, who's on the hook for those "children" now? Alabama Family Services.
Of course, in theory, they could hire surrogates to birth the babies, but that's expensive too. Then AFS would have to pay someone else to raise them, since they're unwanted. That's if you can pry the parental rights away from the people who provided the genetic material, which is not easy, as demonstrated by many previous divorce battles over embryos. More money down the drain. Let's not forget, Alabama is Deep South which is dirt-poor compared to the North already.
Congratulations, Alabama, you just punched the Tar Baby. Have fun with that.
Well ...
Date: 2024-02-21 04:27 am (UTC)Microloans and small loans are investment opportunities that create small businesses and lift people out of poverty. And bankers only want to loan money to white men who already have money. They care fuckall about people of color, women, queers, or anyone else -- who are most in need of starting businesses because most companies also care fuckall about providing goods and services to such people. If you loan to a black woman, then even if her business doesn't succeed, at least you showed her that somebody cared enough to pitch in.
Don't bet what you can't afford to lose, but understand that not all benefits consist of cash. That's something most investors have forgotten.
I mean, sheesh, we haven't even pulled our stake out of the food co-op even though we don't shop there very often anymore. We go occasionally, and we want them to exist, so they can keep it. That's a form of investment. So is banking at a credit union, which is another type of co-op. Those things have community and service benefits, as well as sometimes being a better buy.
It's like permaculture: obtain a yield. But you get to decide what "a yield" means. To me, small businesses existing and leaf mulch are yields. To other people they're trash. I note that my approach isn't cooking off the atmosphere.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2024-02-21 05:45 am (UTC)Get-rich-quick schemes don't have a great track record of success, whether gambling or investment. And yes there are lower risk investments...but the % of return usually goes up along with the risk - at least for those of us with too little money to rewrite the rulebook.
>>Microloans and small loans...<<
I read a book about that once. There are a bunch of good ideas.
>>...at least you showed her that somebody cared enough to pitch in.
Don't bet what you can't afford to lose, but understand that not all benefits consist of cash. That's something most investors have forgotten.<<
I don't have a ton of discretionary $, so I have to be choosy as to where I put it, and correspondingly when I invest in people its typically an investment of skills/time/craftwork.
The last couple of $ investments I remember were fairly small. I remember there was one that was $5 as an investment in someone's self-worth. Another time I used $10 to buy some (old and scruffy) stuff, and then fixed it up into a decent-quality Useful Resource for someone. Neither of those are things I am expecting a big monetary payment from, but hopefully by investing in people, that will turn into something good for the universe.
>>It's like permaculture: obtain a yield. But you get to decide what "a yield" means.<<
Having people like you well enough to bail you out of life's misfortunes is a fairly good yield, but it doesn't exactly show up on an accounting sheet.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2024-02-21 07:50 pm (UTC)That is true.
>>I don't have a ton of discretionary $, so I have to be choosy as to where I put it, and correspondingly when I invest in people its typically an investment of skills/time/craftwork.<<
Sensible. I often do the same. However, when I checked microloans online, Kiva seems to start at $25 contributions. That's the price of a new hardback book, and reachable for many people.
>> The last couple of $ investments I remember were fairly small. I remember there was one that was $5 as an investment in someone's self-worth. Another time I used $10 to buy some (old and scruffy) stuff, and then fixed it up into a decent-quality Useful Resource for someone.<<
Very prudent.
>> Neither of those are things I am expecting a big monetary payment from, but hopefully by investing in people, that will turn into something good for the universe.<<
Based on my observations and experience, I would bet that you've saved the day doing that at least once. Possibly the world. Most times, you won't know when you've done it. But if you read interviews and biographies, you'll see people talking about times they were saved, and thus you can learn the pattern of things that tend to save days, people, and sometimes worlds. It's the little things that matter.
>> Having people like you well enough to bail you out of life's misfortunes is a fairly good yield, but it doesn't exactly show up on an accounting sheet.<<
It does when they actually bail you out, though.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2024-02-22 01:02 am (UTC)Well, if investing $ my thought would be:
- for something where I reasonably expect to get a product, swag, etc, are the goods something I would want and are they worth the $25? ("Do I want or need a thneed? Also is this thneed worth $25 to me?")
- for donations (or long-shot investments) is the cause I am donating to something I want to support? ("Do I want to donate $25 so that thneeds will maybe exist?")
$25 is a reachable goal, but I would still be choosy about it. Is the $25 better used as an investment/donation, funds to buy someone a birthday present, funds to by myself something (necessity or luxury), etc.
>>Based on my observations and experience, I would bet that you've saved the day doing that at least once. Possibly the world.<<
I can actually identify a few 'save the day' moments, though they aren't the dramatic save-the-day-with-sirens sort. Stuff like giving someone a sweater I keep in the car, because they have to walk home in freezing weather with an underdressed kid, making a communication device for someone, administering first aid, explaining "You can't /say/ that to people!" before they actually say that to people-other-than-me and end up getting punched or arrested, etc.
Saving the world... Helping kids and families with small kids ticks up the odds, as does the fact that I am often passing along basic skills and resources. I also know at least a few of the people I have helped are activists, social lynchpins, or both, and those sorts of people have a very large potential reach. (At least one of them I know has since assumed a community leadership/mentor role, so that ended up as a kind of pay-it-forward thing.)
Also, any save-the-world bits may still be incubating, especially if it will be one of the kids who haven't finished growing up yet.
>>It does when they actually bail you out, though.<<
In my experience, accounting (in the modern sense) usually tracks money and stuff that can easily be converted into money. So, how much bail money, the $ value of donated food, maybe "I save $480 a month because my friend drives me to the doctor."
But modern accounting is very poor at tracking other things, like wildflowers planted along the roadside, the time-compassion devoted to helping a friend through a rough patch in their life, the joy you get from a crafting hobby and then giving away your projects.
Or in other words, "Bob paid my 25,000 bail and now I can go to work" is trackable, but "Bob stayed at my house for a week because I was having a mental breakdown, and my mental state improved" is less so.
Plus if I thing of gifted time, care, resources in terms of money, I usually feel like I am not contributing much of value, since other folk's 'earnings' seem to be more than whatever I can scrape up. (I may be an unreliable narrator, re: the monetary value of my work.)