Word: rostand
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Human law has historically been based on philosophy, on theology, or on the imperatives of community life. French Biologist Jean Rostand founds his concept of the law on the biology of the human being. He argues* that modern science is rapidly changing human biology and that the laws affecting it must change...
...says Rostand, "was constructed by and for a certain living species whose reproduction is sexual, whose two sexes are separate and about equal in number, whose fertilization is internal, whose period of gestation is about nine months. The sex of the infants of this species is recognizable at birth and, in general, does not change during life. It is evident that if man were hermaphroditic like the snail or could grow a new head like the earthworm, he would not have given himself the same laws...
Whither Maternity? Biological science has changed this traditional concept of the human species, says Rostand. Artificial insemination raises the possibility that husbands separated from their wives for long periods may arrange to have them inseminated during their absence. This requires a change in laws that now permit a husband to disown a child that he could not have begotten in the usual manner...
...test-tube babies are only the beginning. "What would become of the notion of maternity," Rostand asks, "if surgeons transplanted a fertilized ovum or a young embryo from one woman to another? If a woman bore a child that was not genetically hers, who would be the real mother? Would it be she who carried the child or she who furnished the germ cell...
Nancy Wickwire is a beautiful and compelling Roxane; but she should look older at the end, for Rostand jumped ahead 15 or 16 years here, as Shakespeare had done in A Winter's Tale. Michael Higgins is excellent as the ardent but inarticulate Christian; he can convey earnestness as well as anyone in the company. Michael Lewis is a strong and brusque Comte de Guiche. Sorrell Booke makes a lovable Ragueneau, the baker whose heart lies in trying to write verse rather than in selling pastry (did anyone ever better deserve the name of poetaster?). And there are other laudable...