April 26, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Elton John reportedly spent ten days in a hospital following a couple days in intensive care battling a serious, potentially life-threatening infection. The enormously popular entertainer was struck with his illness earlier this month while flying home to England from Santiago, Chile.
This is only the most recent in a series of illnesses which have caused the performer to cancel gigs around the world.
In 2013, after emergency surgery for appendicitis, the now 70-year-old John told the Daily Telegraph, “This is a wake-up call. I'm 66 not 36 anymore . . . I want to spend more time with my children.”
Earlier this year, when asked about the possibility of a farewell tour, John replied, “I like playing and I'm a working musician and I love to do it . . . [but] . . . I'm not going to do it forever because I want to see my boys grow up.”
Just how likely is it that he will get to see his boys grow up? Modern medical technology and the normalization of third party reproduction have enabled gay men and anyone else who cares to—no matter what their age—to become biological parents. At the same time, despite ongoing medical advances, keeping older men alive while their bodies are deteriorating is still, to put it crudely, a bit of a crap shoot.
Third Party Reproduction: The Wild, Wild West
Sir Elton John was 63 years old when his first child was born through surrogacy and 65 at the birth of his second. His partner, David Furnish, was 48 and 50. When their kids were born, the pair were already old enough to be their children’s grandfather and great grandfather.
When their younger child graduates from high school, they will be 81 and 68. At his college graduation, they’ll be 85 and 72. Children deserve biological parents—a mom and a dad—not two middle-aged guys approaching old age when the kids are infants and a decade or two past retirement age when they are teenagers.
In the United States the adoption industry has been heavily regulated for a very long time in order to protect children from harm or difficult family situations, including adoption by parents who are too old to adequately care for and/or relate to their children.
Any infertile couple working with a reputable adoption agency knows that the window of opportunity for adopting newborns closes as you approach forty years of age. After that, one is eligible to adopt only older children.
Not so in our brave new world. The engineering of children through gamete purchase and surrogacy—womb rental—currently falls under no such restrictions. It is a booming industry with lots of money to be made, akin to the wild, wild west or the California gold rush. The only thing is, we’re not talking about minerals to be mined from the earth; we’re talking about children who come into the world essentially as commodified human beings.
Society’s recent quick evolution on matters relating to marriage and children is reflected in the evolution of Sir Elton John’s own thought, as his views on both gay marriage and gay parenting have changed substantially over the last decade.
In 2008, he said that civil partnerships—not marriages—were more appropriate for gays. And as recently as 2012, John said, “It’s going to be heartbreaking for [our child] to grow up and realise he hasn’t got a mummy.”
Third party reproduction is a boon for infertile parents, but not so much for children brought into the world in that manner. Greater government scrutiny and regulation is needed in order to bring it into line with current adoption regulations.
For wealthy white gay males such as John and Furnish, there are no rules, only endless opportunities to acquire children.