During fifteen years of marriage, James and Leslie Knox had not succeeded in having a baby. As a last resort, they tried in vitro fertilization. Doctors surgically removed nine eggs from Leslie and fertilized them with James’s sperm. The embryos were then placed in a freezer until the proper time for them to be implanted in Leslie’s womb. In the meantime, James and Leslie came to realize that their marriage was going nowhere, and they decided to get a divorce. The couple has had no trouble arriving at a settlement concerning the house, cars, bank accounts, and other possessions, but they cannot agree on the disposition of the frozen embryos. James is adamant about not wanting to have any children by Leslie, and he wants the embryos destroyed. Leslie, on the other hand, realizing that she is getting older, thinks that the frozen embryos offer her the best chance of having a baby, and she wants them implanted.

Write a dialogue, similar to the one in this chapter, examining the moral and/or legal ramifications of this dispute. Include in your dialogue analogies between this situation and the following: killing a fetus, killing a baby, forcing your wife to have an abortion, having an abortion against the wishes of your husband, owning a dog or cat, owning a child, determining custody of a child upon divorce, dividing a bank account, determining ownership of a unique and valuable painting produced jointly by two people, implanting an embryo in a surrogate mother, and any other analogies that come to mind, including analogies that show that the embryos have or do not have rights and analogies that illustrate the investment that James and Leslie have in the embryos.