James Q. Wilson Sex and Family Dr. Kass's view may overlap mine, but it is somewhat different in emphasis. He worries that creating babies without marital sex is the fundamental error. If Dr. Kass thinks that sexuality is more important than families, then he would object to any form of assisted reproduction that does not involve parental coition. Many such forms now exist. Children are adopted by parents who did not give them birth.
Artificial insemination produces children without sexual congress.
Some forms of such insemination rely on sperm produced by a man other than the woman's husband, while other forms involve the artificial insemination of a surrogate mother who will relinquish the baby to a married couple. By in vitro fertilization, eggs and sperm can be joined in a petri dish and then transferred into the woman's uterus. There have been several efforts to study how well the children fare. I am aware of none that shows in vitro fertilization to have had a harmful effect on the children's mental or psychological status or their relationships with parents. One study in the Netherlands found children conceived by in vitro fertilization in two-parent families to be the object of more maternal involvement and pleasure than were children of similar parents whose offspring had been conceived without in vitro fertilization.