The Knucklehead of the Day award

Goes to Republican Indiana State Representative Patricia Miller. This clueless knucklehead proposed legislation that would have regulated people who got pregnant by invitro fertilization. The person would have to be married, or if they were married then like adoptive couples these people would have to be assessed by the government if their fit to be parents.

For once I'm in agreement with the GLBT crowd. Rep Miller is clearly out of control. Either Miller is a homophobe or she wants to regulate a part of people's lives she has no business doing. What differentiates people who get pregnant by IVF and other methods from couples who get pregnant the usual way? Why would the government feel it needs to approve.

If Rep. Miller was logical she would be asking this for all pregnancnies. We know that it isn't feasible of course. Not just because of the outrage but the cost. No I think its pretty obvious, Rep. Miller don't like gay people. There is no other logic behind her bill. Why else would this knucklehead be proposing legislative crap like this.

As the Indianapolis Star chronicled, Representative Miller withdrew the legislation. No matter whether she hates homosexuals or is just a meddling busy body, Patricia Miller is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Overlawyered
Open Post- Basil's Blog, Political Teen and Mudville Gazette

A controversial proposed bill to prohibit gays, lesbians and single people from using medical procedures to produce a child has been dropped by its legislative sponsor.
State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday saying:

"The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission."

Miller said later that the issue of regulating assisted reproduction, just as the state regulates adoption, is multifaceted. She said there was not enough time for the committee -- a panel of lawmakers that meets when the Indiana General Assembly is not in session to discuss possible legislation -- to work through all of the issues involved by its next meeting Oct. 20.

Miller had planned to ask the committee to vote at that meeting on whether to recommend the proposed bill to the full legislature when it meets in January.

Under her proposal, couples who needed assistance to become pregnant -- such as through intrauterine insemination; the use of donor eggs, embryos and sperm; in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer; or other medical means -- would have had to be married to each other.

In addition, married couples who needed donor sperm and eggs to become pregnant would have been required to go through the same rigorous assessment of their fitness to be parents as do people who adopt a child.