Background Context for those who care: This is a VERY odd sort of question but it just sorta popped into my head while reading this post, and I didn’t want to derail the Pit thread, and would prefer to learn something from the random thought I had.
Basically, my question is this:
**What would the criminal charges be for artificially fertilizing someone without their consent? **
Would it be Rape, because as the link post pointed out, Rape usually requires SOMETHING in the Sexual process. So it’s not really sexual assault in this case. But I know it’s got to be against the Law. But what law?
Is there even a law in the books for this matter?
If someone was to use a syringe and artificially impregnate a female (either by removing her eggs, fertilizing them with donor sperm, and then implanting them back into her Uterus or by injecting a fertilized egg within her fallopian tubes/uterus), what crime would that person be charged with?
My first thought was it’s rape, as it’s non-consensual and sort of sexual in nature (you’re violating a woman’s personal-est of personal spaces- her womb), but that doesn’t seem right. As it’s not sexual at all, it is forcing though a woman to attempt to bear a child for someone, which I would say would then fall under Abuse or maybe a human rights violation? But I realize I don’t really know enough on the matter… Thus I turn to you guys for the Straight Dope:
What’s the criminal charge in the cases above- of a female being impregnated without her consent, but by non-sexual means?
what would the offender’s severity of punishment be probably?
Has this ever happened or something similar to it? (It’s make a great plot device to a story, that’s for sure).
Bonus Question:
Would it make a difference in charges/punishment if it was her egg violated/used vs. if someone else’s egg was used (ie: a forced Surrogate Mother)?
Thanks for putting up with this question and I hope to actually learn something from this random thought. Gracias!
There was a Pit thread some years back about a couple being arrested for rape because they had artificially inseminated the daughter (who was the step-daughter of the male in the relationship, and thus not biologically related) when she was a minor. The daughter gave her consent to the act, but because she wasn’t of age by the state’s law, it was considered rape by the authorities. IIRC, there was some irony involved in the matter since the daughter’s mother had lobbied in years past to get someone sticking an object into a minor’s body in a sexual manner considered rape, because the daughter had been molested by someone who had done this, but was allowed to go free, since at the time, it was not a crime for them to do so.
Such an act would be defined as sexual assault, these days, although rape is sometimes defined more restrictively. “Unlawful sexual activity (or sexual contact) with a person without consent” would seem to include penetration with a syringe, although actual court cases will always provide the details, and statutes and judges vary with jurisdiction.
Here(registration required)is kind of a related case. A doctor, paid to artificially inseminate women with sperm from anonymous donors, figures, “Hey, I got sperm of my own!”, and uses it to inseminate 50 or 60 women. The charges ended up being fraud and perjury.
But is it sexual contact? I’ve looked at those statues a bit and they tend to refer to the standard bathsuit area types of contact (genitalia, breasts, anus). I don’t think I’ve ever seen one reference a uterus.
I’m not sure the law is quite sure what to do with these cases, especially indirect ones where genetic material is used in a way that doesn’t directly harm the donor. Anyone able to link cases?
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI, the preferred term) is performed by opening the vaginal canal with a speculum (as in gynecological examinations) and inserting a catheter attached to a syringe into the vagina, then through the cervix, into the uterus. If the catheter is not passed through the cervix quite slowly, carefully and deliberately, it is painful. There is absolutely no way to perform this procedure, even as a layperson (probably especially as a layperson) without very intimate, penetrative, prolonged genital contact.
Dr Jacobsen was a fertility doctor whom inseminated many of his female patients with his own sperm. Before that, he was doctor of some infant studies, which I was a infant patient of. I am adopted, but my teenaged biological mother used LSD when she was pregnant with me and it caused some chromosome breakage that ended up resolving itself.
Nobody ever knew whom my biological father was, and as I recall, when the story about Jacobsen broke, my Mom called me like “Oh my God, that was your doctor when you were a baby!”.
I’ve heard speculation that perhaps a woman could get impregnated if she is in a hottub where someone has ejaculated given ‘ideal’ conditions. Also perhaps it could be done by contaminating an object that she inserts into herself (like a tampon), which would be impregnation by deception.
At the very least, kidnap and assault. “Sexual assault” would be up to the lawyers and courts to haggle about.
I don’t think it would make a bit of difference if it was her egg vs. implantation with another woman’s genetic material. If the womb holder didn’t consent to it, it is assault.
Just to nip this one in the bud…no, unless your “hot” tub is so lukewarm that it’s visibly growing algae and stuff in it. Remember that sperm are so sensitive to heat that males evolved this ridiculously vulnerable external sac to make and store them in so they’re actually lower than body temp! The heat in a properly run hot tub will kill sperm ejaculated into the water, even if there’s no chlorine or other anti-microbial agents in it (which, of course, there are).
The heat will NOT kill sperm that’s ejaculated inside you, so having sex in a hot tub is not “safe sex”. The heat’s also not so good for the structural integrity of latex condoms, so sex with a condom in a hot tub is still probably not a great idea. *Foreplay *in the hot tub, however, is the best idea since skinny dipping! Just move it to dry land to complete the deed.
I doubt one could reliably contaminate a tampon in the real world. By the time a sample is dry, the sperm are dead, as they need that liquid for hydration and as a movement medium. You’d have to somehow not notice a gob of mucusy goo on the tampon you’re putting in, and be using a tampon during a time that’s pretty likely (but not guaranteed!) to be a non-fertile time of the month. It’s an interesting moot point, but as a real world worry, I wouldn’t waste much energy on it.
The heat inside the woman’s body is a sperm toasty 98.6F, IIRC the lower temp is needed for sperm creation, sperm can live for perhaps a day inside the woman at the elevated temps.
I believe there was a recent thread which touched on the legal status of a surgical procedure performed without the patient’s consent. The consensus was that it would be considered battery.
You can’t just pick some victim at random off the street and steal her eggs.
Harvesting eggs is a really long, difficult, and painful procedure. It’s not something you could do to an uncooperative victim unless you were planning to add false imprisonment or kidnapping to your list of charges.
First it involves using drugs over a period of weeks to stimulate follicle production i.e. tell the ovaries to ripen more than the usual one or two eggs. And secondly to tightly control when ovulation will occur. The eggs need to be harvested at pretty much exactly the right time; while they’re still in the follicle but as “ripe” as possible.
Then they harvest them by administering a general anesthetic and using a needle to drain the follicle(s) hoping to get an egg along with the rest of the fluid. (these days they do this vaginally with ultrasonic guidance).
Usually the eggs are fertilized shortly thereafter and incubated for 3-5 days in a lab. The most viable appearing candidates are then implanted (as described earlier) either on the 3rd or 5th day depending on how well-developed and how many zygotes you have.
ETA: the drugs involved are very expensive and require daily injections on tight timetables. It seems an unlikely crime unless the victim was somehow being defrauded.
