Sperm Germ

By Richard J. Hamersma

Joseph and Mary Lou were waiting to have a child until they were better prepared financially, among other personal reasons. Now their decision, or anyone else’s decision, to have a child just became more complicated by a government edict. The government is passing a law requiring a mandatory vasectomy of all males at the age of eighteen. Married males of any age are required to have an immediate mandatory vasectomy. The government states that this policy is necessary due to increasing population growth, significant economic problems, high unemployment, and problems with adequate food distribution since many people were unable to provide for their families. The edict has one requirement that would give any couple pause. All sperm will be deposited in a tightly controlled universal sperm bank. Records will be kept on the depositor assuring that they had complied with the law. And most frightening of all, the sperm will be unlabeled.

The government has reasoned that any couple wishing to conceive would have to grapple with the fact that any child born would only be half theirs genetically. The sperm could be from anybody and could represent any ethnic, cultural, or any other physical traits. In addition, the sperm could carry genetic defects, diseases, or other contaminants. Couples are forced to examine their beliefs and prejudices to make a commitment to humankind. Joseph and Mary Lou face the dilemma and decide to have a child. Their struggle involves dealing with their belief system, their own worth, and the worth of others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daydream Alchemy
• Release date: May 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301676477

Richard J. Hamersma

Richard J. Hamersma holds a master's degree and a doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University. Richard was an assistant professor at DePaul University, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and published many academic books and articles. After leaving academia, he entered private practice doing individual and group psychotherapy. His practice with couples therapy, as well as his writings on relationship issues, became the kernel for the novel “Sperm Germ.” He has also written songs that have been recorded in the United States and in Europe.

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Sperm Germ

By Richard J. Hamersma

Copyright 2013 Daydream Alchemy

Illustrations by Juan Andrés Da Corte

Copyright 2013 Juan Andrés Da Corte

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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of this author.

Dedication: To my children John, David, Amelia, and Ana Sage. To all the other children of the world. May they all grow up with love, affection, and understanding.

Special Thanks: To Ann Lindner for her editing and helpful suggestions.

Table of Contents

I-Before

II-The Party

III-The Operation

IV-After

V-The Process

VI-The Birth

About the Author

I

Before

"America is sometimes referred to as the melting pot because of the diversity of people who inhabit it. The term melting pot, in the best sense, is supposed to connote a coming together of the people or a melting together of all the people who inhabit the United States. That this has not happened, or probably will not for a long time, if ever, is cogently pointed out by the continuing racial strife, the continuing sexual stereotyping, and the continuing assessment by one group of another group as an out group because of some different characteristic or characteristics. The melting pot simply has not melted."

Mary Lou read with interest from a textbook written by one of her college professors. She remembered his course where he had used this textbook. It was a required liberal arts course dealing with both psychological and sociological issues. She also remembered him. He was a young and attractive looking person. His hair used to hang down all around his head, not in an unkempt manner but rather in a loosely styled shape. He had a medium size build and a peculiar walking gait that was easy to distinguish. He had a habit, Mary Lou recollected, of trying to get students to verbalize their attitudes and feelings on matters he deemed important and crucial both to the material being covered in the course and to related events outside of the classroom. A great deal of effort was involved in his attempts to make the students personally examine themselves. He often only partially succeeded in this aim, and sometimes his efforts were a complete failure. In those instances of complete failure, Mary Lou found herself wanting to reach out to him. She wanted to show her appreciation and thank him in some way for this. She read on.

When will people melt their stereotypes and outmoded beliefs about people they view as different? When will people accept and respect other people, regardless of any physical or mental characteristics that may be different from their own, as worthy of their attention and consideration? When will equality in all human relationships come about?

Mary Lou read a few pages further until she came to the conclusion of that particular section. Here the professor ended with the phrase, What can be done! What can be done! After this section came a section dealing with the reasons why prejudice and discrimination exist and some material relating to attitude change. She wondered how the professor was reacting to the new policies and procedures promulgated by the government now. These policies and procedures required mandatory vasectomy of all males at the age of eighteen or before they married if their age was less than eighteen. Married males, of any age, were required to have an immediate mandatory vasectomy first. It also required all males over eighteen to be immediately registered and vasectomized. Before each male had a vasectomy, however, sperm specimens were obtained and deposited into vast governmental storage banks. A distinguishing feature of this process was that deposited sperm was stored unlabeled and the several governmental banks around the nation periodically exchanged randomly selected sperm specimens. This procedure had obvious implications for family planning and human relationships. In fact, the implications were so obvious, so blatant, that everyone was talking about them.

These new procedures had only recently gone into effect after a governmental restriction on family size proved to be practically unworkable. Violations of the family size ban were a frequent occurrence, and enforcement was a hopeless venture. Detection of violators was an enormously complicated task, and appropriate action—punishment—against violators was in the form of fines and possible imprisonment. These negative reinforcers did not work as deterrents since those who violated the law were willing to pay, if they could, and imprisonment, if it happened, was both an embarrassment to the government and destructive to family life and society. As a consequence, the government had decided on mandatory sterilization for males.

The country had expected the government to take some corrective measures, but nobody had been prepared for the harsh and immediate realities of this law. They had felt that nothing so drastic could happen to them. But it had, and now it was law.

As the Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Education, and Welfare explained in a written statement:

We are no longer talking about a crisis, we are living one. Food is not only expensive, it is scarce. People are not only overcrowded, they are desperate. It is not an uncommon occurrence to hear a report about death from starvation or violence caused by density of living conditions. We can no longer point our finger at other nations emphasizing their overcrowded conditions to make ours, by comparison, look good. Ours is critical. For some years the government has tried various programs in an attempt to ameliorate the problems, but these attempts have been less than successful. Hence the new policies and procedures are put into effect. Our President vetoed the new law, but his veto was overridden by the legislature. As a spokesman for the President, I can assure you that he supports all efforts to rectify the present crisis. His veto was directed at a particular amendment to the proposed policies and, because he was overridden on this point, he will stand behind the law 100 percent…

Mary Lou knew that there was widespread resistance to the storing of unlabeled sperm. Most people went along grudgingly with mandatory vasectomy because of the crisis, but the idea of using unlabeled sperm to impregnate your wife or yourself, if that was decided, was repugnant to a large number of people. However, this aspect, which passed in amendment form to the law, had some appeal and rationale. Many legislators argued for storing of unlabeled sperm because of the amount of pressure and conditions it placed on any couple contemplating having a child. They pointed out that procreation was no longer desirable for every couple because of the present crisis and that by using unlabeled sperm a couple would have to make a strong, reasoned commitment to raising a child who would be only half theirs genetically. This commitment, many legislators believed, would have to be more personally examined than an adoption decision because many times in adoption the adopting parents specify what they want or what they are interested in adopting. In reality, the majority of legislators were only concerned with stopping the procreation of children, except for some, and not with any other issues. A small minority of legislators also pointed out that the use of unlabeled sperm in a nation filled with so many diverse people could literally mean the contemplated child could be anything! People's prejudices and beliefs about other people would thus be directly challenged. It was this latter reasoning that made the President, under pressure, veto the new policies and procedures bill.

Despite widespread resistance, the bill passed. With its passing, all couples wishing or desiring a child were directly confronted with the massive and complex implications of the new law. Mary Lou thought again of the professor's phrase, What can be done! What can be done! This phrase was slowly beginning for Mary Lou and other desiring couples to change to, What will we do!

Mary Lou's thoughts about having a child had changed considerably. Both she and her husband, Joe, had decided not to have any children. They had made a personal commitment not to exacerbate the present population crisis. Their decision was based on humanitarian reasoning. Time and internal pressure were, however, tempering Mary Lou's decision.

Mary Lou was a comely looking woman of twenty-six. She was average in height and had long, curly, brunette hair. Her hair color was not consistent, and certain spots stood out because of darker pigmentation. This condition, rather than being a physical flaw, was an attraction because these spots appeared to be deliberately placed by strokes of a master artist's brush. It was almost as if the artist did not stop there but had a hand in the painting of her face and body hue. Her complexion seemed to be a mixture of white and light brown with a trace of olive and other variations thrown in for contrast. It was as if, when the artist was mixing the color to paint her, his brush lightly touched against other colors arranged on his palette. These minute traces of other colors were not detectable to the cursory glance, but the intent eye could discern them. She was of a slight build with piercing, dark eyes.

Once employed as a career counselor and then as an assistant administrator in a small school, Mary Lou was now without a job. Unemployment was steadily rising all over, and the small