Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2000
ISSN
0028-4793
Publisher
Massachusetts Medical Society
Language
en-US
Abstract
On his 10-year voyage back to Ithaca from the Trojan War, Ulysses was warned by Circe to take precautions if he wanted to hear the Sirens' transfixing song, or there would be “no sailing home for him, no wife rising to meet him, /no happy children beaming up at their father's face.” Ulysses accordingly ordered his men to stop their ears with beeswax and bind him firmly to the mast and instructed them that if he gestured to be set free, they should stick to the original agreement and bind him tighter still. Making an agreement that has as a major condition relinquishing the right to change one's mind can be called a “Ulysses contract.” In Homeric mythology, such a contract can seem reasonable; but should contemporary courts enforce such a contract when a substantial change in family circumstances leads to a change of mind?
Recommended Citation
George J. Annas,
Ulysses and the Fate of Frozen Embryos - Reproduction, Research, or Destruction?
,
in
343
New England Journal of Medicine
373
(2000).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1279
Comments
From The New England Journal of Medicine, George J. Annas, Ulysses and the Fate of Frozen Embryos - Reproduction, Research, or Destruction?, Volume 343, Page 373 Copyright ©(2000) Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.