My 1st Attempt at Fiction

Moral Dilemmas
When Susie was a little girl she was in the habit of drawing her 12 children across the bottom of her paper. She liked to imagine her future and invariably it contained a whole lot of children under foot. She never imagined that it could be otherwise except for a very short time around 7th grade when she had fleeting thoughts of donning a habit and dedicating her life to Jesus. However this was short lived as soon as that first young man held her hand and gently kissed her lips. Babies it would be after all!
Fearful of mortal sin that would condemn her to the fires of hell for all eternity, pre-marital intercourse and even lengthy kissing were out of the question. Nevertheless, little Susie continued to grow into a woman and finally met a man willing to put up with her scrupulosities. Even after the vows of holy matrimony were taken, the use of artificial birth control could lead Susie to eternal damnation. Participating in this new marital sexuality could prove to be a bit stressful as there were strict criteria to be followed.
So Susie was happy because she did not have to use birth control because she still thought she want ed at least a half dozen kids (she became a bit more realistic after babysitting in her teen years and reduced her expectations from 12 babies to 6 babies). Susie didn’t have to live in fear of dying and going to hell since she wasn’t using wicked Birth Control and she was married and could now do the “wild thing” without guilt.
Sadly after a couple of years of marital sexual activity, Susie was still experiencing her monthly visitor. Eventually she spoke to her family doctor who suggested some “basic,down home” remedies. When these recommendations failed to produce results, the services of a Inferiority ( funny that this word appeared as I meant to put the word Infertility) Specialist were secured. This guy proved to be a smug, pompous know-it-all. During one office visit, he demanded that Susie “pant like a dog” in order to inhale more sedative gas so it would make it easier on him to perform an endometrial biopsy on her. This did not sit well with Susie. After getting her legs out of the stirrups, she proceeded to his prestigious outer office and sat in front of his big desk. He went to the bookcase and pulled out a copy of his latest Obs-Gyn textbook, in an apparent effort to show Susie how smart he was. Without batting an eye, she answered” don’t bother, I’ve read it already”, stood up, left his office and never returned there again.
It was interesting to Susie that all the infertility focus was on her, almost as if she were creating a baby completely on her own.  Luckily, Susie had a good friend who worked in the Laboratory and she suggested that before Susie put herself through any more embarrassing, invasive procedures, she should get a bit of semen from her hubby so his sperm could be examined under her microscope. After all, this was a rather simple, rather painless (actually quite the opposite) step and would easily rule out problems from this vital source. But, believe it or not, this was the first of many moral dilemmas in the heartache that surrounds infertility. You see, Susie, happened to be Roman Catholic, and obtaining a sperm sample involves masturbation, and masturbation is considered a sin. ..... to be continued...

Susie probably felt it was less of a sin for her since, she, herself, was not doing the masturbating. Her husband was a lot less intense about such things and he easily proceeded to obtain the needed specimen. Susie brought the important ingredient to her workplace and remembers quite clearly the shock and distress she felt when her Lab Technician Friend rather flippantly announced that the little spermatozoa were not all they should be. “Oh no, this is not good news”, she said, but possibly it will save me from undergoing any further invasive procedures. “I’ll tell the Infertility Specialist what we discovered and the focus will shift to this vital part of our Infertility problem.” But Susie failed to comprehend that this was the very early 70’s and typically the woman was, quite frankly, seen as the defective piece in the Infertility puzzle. The Obs-Gyn Infertility Specialist completely ignored this finding and proceeded to perform major surgery on Susie.   Did I mention that this Specialist was a male.  To be fair, Susie did have some issues of her own, including endometriosis. Possibly, these issues possibly could have been handled with less invasive procedures. Nonetheless, a crucial issue such as her husband’s inadequate sperm count and poor motility should certainly have been looked  concurrently.  Perhaps, Susie would have been spared a major surgical procedure.