BC judge resolves lesbian sperm fight

BY ROB SALERNO – It wasn’t quite the judgment of Solomon, but a BC judge was forced to decide what to do with sperm belonging to a pair of lesbians whose relationship had hit the skids.

The women (who are not named in the court documents) owned a big batch of semen because they had planned to start a family and presumably wanted all the children to have the same father. The couple had already started a family when they broke up.

One of the women wanted to use the sperm to impregnate her new partner, but the original partner didn’t want to share the semen.

Justice Loryl Russell weighed the evidence and decided that the only fair thing to do was to cut the semen in half down the middle and let each of the women take a piece.

When neither woman protested that they’d rather the other have all the semen than see it destroyed, Justice Russell realized that the semen should be returned to its rightful owner, Mark Ruffalo.

Awkward.

Kidding.

In a weird way, the ruling further entwines the family, at least biologically, if they’re going to continue to make new half-siblings for their children with their new partners. It’s a fascinating development. What do you think?

(PS. Do *not* Google image-search “lesbian sperm fight.” Trust me.)

Rob Salerno is a playwright and journalist whose writing has appeared in such publications as Vice, Advocate, NOW and OutTraveler.

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