Eggplant

Slovenia is split over the right of single women to be artificially inseminated. by Ales Gaube 15 May 2001 LJUBLJANA, Slovenia--Nina is a young workaholic with an absentee boyfriend. The ambitious 27-year-old is a public relations officer at a Slovenian marketing company whose boyfriend lives and studies abroad. In accordance with the modern age, they met in a Internet chat-room. And in keeping with that, for four years their relationship has largely been an electronic one--except for about four week-long visits each year. But Nina wouldn't have it any other way, she says.

"I also don't know if I'll be able to keep a man at all. But I do know that I want to have a child someday. With or without a man," Nina says.

Nina is a potential beneficiary of a new law on artificial, biomedical fertilization. But she'll have to wait at least until 17 June--when a confirmation referendum on the law will be held--before she knows whether the practice will be an option for her. Even before the law was approved in parliament on 19 April, controversy arose about whether single women would also have the right to be artificially inseminated. According to Slovenian law, a special commission of gynecologists, professionals of medical ethics, sociologists, psychologists, lawyers, and representatives from the ombudsman's office must decide whether to grant the right to be artificially inseminated to single women, and not only to married women who cannot get pregnant.

"It's just another page in the sad book of male chauvinism. It seems our parliamentary deputies are still living in the 16th century. They still think that the only way a child will grow up normally is if it is born into a family with two parents. But the man's role isn't of great importance anymore. In fact, has it ever been?" says 29-year-old Martina, happily married with two children.

A 1977 law on curing infertility gave women the right to be artificially inseminated. Since then, only 50 women have taken the state up on its offer. But last year the law was changed to read that only married women would be granted that right. The mid-June referendum will decide whether that change is approved or not.

Martina is furious about the debate, and she is willing to express her anger on the street. "We live in a free country. Every woman should have the right and the chance to decide for herself whether or not to become a mother--with or without a man. Democracy is made strong because of certain small rights. And surely the right of single women to get artificially fertilized is one of them. If there's going to be a demonstration in favor of this right, I'll be standing in the front row," she says, "With my husband!"

But deputies say such criticism is unfair, and that it's not chauvinism that's driving them, merely their concern for single-parent families. France Cukjati, a Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS) deputy, argues that he and his fellow politicians have demanded the referendum simply because children also have rights. Every child, he says, has the right to two parents and a healthy family environment.

The opposition New Slovenian party (Nsi) also fully supports the referendum, because "for overall development a child needs a mother and a father," NSi chairman Andrej Bajuk says. He also suggested that the referendum is an attempt by the ruling coalition to draw attention away from more important issues in Slovenia, such as the privatization of state-run companies. Chairman of the opposition Slovenian National Party (SNS), Zmago Jelincic, says he is convinced that the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party (LDS) put this law forward to get votes from lesbians for next year's local-government elections.

Parliamentary deputies from the governing coalition--LDS deputy Jelko Kacin and Unified List of Social Democrats (ZLSD) deputy Silva Cernugelj--defended the controversial changes to the law. According to Kacin, they suggested the changes so women wouldn't be discriminated against: "Women can't be divided into married and single women. Such an artificial division wouldn't be in accordance with our constitution," he says.

The referendum will cost Slovenian voters about $2.1 million--enough, Kacin complains, to artificially inseminate 2,800 women. According to a 5 May opinion poll published in the daily Dnevnik, 55.1 percent of those surveyed said they would vote in favor of a single woman's right to artificial insemination, 34.1 percent would oppose it, and 10.7 percent were undecided. The opinion poll numbers will surely change in the coming weeks, when the campaign for and against the law begins to heat up.

In the meantime, the ambitious Nina doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. "Arguments that a child will grow up to be a 'wacko' if he only has a mother is nonsense! Even in families with both parents, children often don't get the desired attention and love from the father," she says.