Thank you. I really can't believe how this uninformed and sanctimonious argument surfaces every time an article on fertility treatments is posted. Every. Single. Time.

This is nothing when compared to the medical and other financial costs of bringing a child into the world even without fertility treatment. All my obgyn appointments, tests, my c-section surgery and hospital stays, all the tests on my baby. Not even counting the costs of raising a kid, which make this a drop in the…

Okay, from a strict utilitarian perspective, you may be right—we should all be using our resources to produce the most well-being in the world.

But before you judge couples for spending money on infertility treatments, consider some other judgments that your logic requires:

1. Tons of fertile people shouldn't have kids…

Of course it's her fault. I mean, how could they rape her if she wasn't there, all existing and whatnot? Logic unassailable.

If you wish to send a message to Sen. Coburn through his website:

Point: No other species can digest milk after babyhood
Counterpoint: He consume a ton of stuff that no other species does. Cured meat. Cooked food. Beer. All that shit is FANTASTIC. I'm sorry milk gives you stomach aches, but it gives me a case of being awesome, so to each his own.

Just some clarification about the charge. The excerpt from the NYT is misleading because it makes it sound like the offenses here outlaw sex with mentally ill children in particular. The prosecutor can prove either the victim's age was under 15 and the defendant was over 18 OR the prosecutor can prove that the victim…

You don't want any part of that. Unless, at a key moment in flagranto delicto, you want to hear "shhhh, shhhh! Calm down. Let me finish."

I've told this story to more than a couple of people, so at risk of outing myself, here goes.

It was the year 2000. I had a friend who worked with Rock the Vote. They were doing a voting special with MTV's Choose or Lose and asked if he and some friends would come be on it. I won't go into the details, but essentially…

Goddammit.

The article says they are charging them with assault, but doesn't mention creation of child pornography. They both raise different issues.

Interesting! I went to law school in Manhattan and we were told to err on the side of formality and conservativeness by wearing skirt suits to interviews. There was a federal judge in the SDNY (again, in Manhattan) who reportedly required female lawyers in his courtroom to wear skirt suits.

I also used to straighten my…

If I looked like that at 16 I would not be unhappy. I might show strangers pictures on the street. At that age, I looked like Eddie Vedder on a good day. A really good day. I am a girl.

Also, these performers aren't really independently deciding the parameters of their performance. This is a large, profit-generating industry and performers may be subject to the pressures of the industry standard. Just like coal miners, meatpackers, and truck drivers, performers deserve health and safety protections…

It's great to see this laid out by someone who is acknowledging the complexity of the issue without getting self-righteous on either side. It is complex.

It might be a situation where condoms alone would be counterproductive, but where the industry has to incorporate condom use along with changes that make filming sex…

Wow. I'm guessing they express similar reservations to generals who discuss veterans' rights because of their bias, right?

Right?

I'm seeing an awful lot of "girls are totally find with this type of thing as long as you're hot—so shallow" for a bunch of stories where the guys describe the objects of their affection as hot, popular, way out of their league, etc.

The guys were acting out of desperation and good intentions, but thinking more about what they wanted than what she might want, not realizing that forcing a grand gesture on someone who either doesn't know you or has expressed no interest in you—especially a tween or adolescent who is already painfully…

You know, the same goes for the girls—for every story where a guy was 12, the girl was 12, too.

The guys were acting out of desperation and good intentions, but thinking more about what they wanted than what she might want, not realizing that forcing a grand gesture on someone who either doesn't know you or has…

This happened to my husband, too. He ended up in the ER, with a dr I will forever love for looking at his thumb and immediately saying, "well, that's going to have to come off." In the end they brought in a group of medical students to watch the pasta extraction.

He said the most humbling part of the experience was…