Last month there were two news stories about legal complications arising from the conception of children through special medical procedures. In one, a surrogate mother in California gave birth to twins who were the product of a Japanese man's sperm and the egg of a third-party Asian-American woman. In the second case, a Japanese woman gave birth to a child conceived with the sperm of her dead husband.

In the former case, the Japanese government did not accept the twins as citizens because of a law concerning mothers over 50 -- the Japanese father's wife is 55 -- even though the State of California recognized the Japanese couple as the twins' parents. (The Japanese government has since changed its mind.) In the latter case, the mother wanted her baby registered as her late husband's, but a judge refused, saying it was not clear that the husband "consented to posthumous in vitro fertilization."

Nothing changes the fact that these people will be the parents of the children they brought into the world. The point of contention was the children's legal status as defined in the family register, which makes it clear that the Japanese government has the final say as to a child's parentage. But once that status is established, the government is through. Raising the child is completely the parents' business.