Posted on 01/26/2009 11:04:46 PM PST by Lorianne
Eight years ago, a woman we’ll call Sarah discovered that she was not biologically related to the father she had known all her life. Sarah, her mother revealed, was “donor-conceived.” Her parents, after trying without success for a pregnancy of their own in the late 1970s, turned to a fertility center, where Sarah’s mother was artificially inseminated with sperm from an anonymous donor. At the time sperm banks did not offer detailed donor profiles. Upon discovering the truth, Sarah was told what her parents had been told about her biological father: He was a medical student, possibly of Scandinavian ancestry.
Sarah, who describes her family as “loving and stable,” was shocked. Today she is also sick. A year before finding out about her conception, she began to experience severe, unexplained bladder problems. She has been seeing doctors at Johns Hopkins; so far they haven’t figured out the cause. Recently married, Sarah worries that she may pass the illness on to future children. The medical history of her biological father could provide a crucial piece of the diagnostic puzzle.
But in the early days of artificial insemination, clinics often shredded or burned files to ensure donor anonymity and client privacy. Sarah’s father’s identity may be locked away in storage somewhere, or it may have been destroyed. Although aware of the likely futility of her search, Sarah still continues—writing the clinic, nurses, her doctor—in the hope that someone can help.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
there will be an outcry for “the One” to donate his “perfect” sperm, i predict
I really don’t believe that there would be much of any value in discovering her sperm-donor’s medical history. Such tales are exaggerated by those who feel the odd neuroses of thinking they have to make contact with their bio-parents.
Intended or unintended consequence, I wonder?
Children have the right to know the identity of their parents.
Imagine that.
“My Baby” is actually a human being with built-in rights and protections beginning at conception.
The time is coming where they can read the DNA directly and say what is wrong. ( Already true for some diseases )
Shhh, you're not allowed to say that!
Wouldn't a database search for other "unexplained" cases of the same symptoms be more helpful than information about the sperm donor? How would it help to find, for example, that he also had unexplained bladder symptoms? They'd still be in the same position regarding this lady's health issues.
“Who’s your daddy?”
It’s “IN” not to know - just like the president.
Turns out my rather disorganized (okay, seriously disorganized, and we're just talking about her emotional health here ...) mother had told my sister that our maternal grandpop had really bad asthma.
That's not exactly earth-shaking, but it would have saved me and my doc some time, loot, and anxiety had we but known.
If medicine is more like warfare than arithmetic, every little advantage brings one a little closer to victory. I think knowing the parental and grand-parental medical history is useful for a lot of things.
That doesn't mean none of the people are neurotic, but I would hesitate to say that all, or even a majority of those wanting their natural parents medical history are doing so because of a pathology.
Further, when I realize that I stand and sit like my father and that my grandmother trod the boards of the illegitimate stage in London in the 19-teens, I feel like I get a little more selbstbewusstsein, or something like that.
I feel horrible for couples that cannot conceive and need these services but they just creep me out.
I would imagine that most sperm and egg donors aren’t necessarily doing it out of the goodness of their hearts as much as they are doing it for money. Suppose you have a guy that donates, say 50 times, and they use 30 of his donations, that means that 30 anonymous kids are related.
Your sperm and your eggs are part of you. How could someone just donate and walk away knowing that a part of them would then be out there somewhere?
My brother and his wife had invitro, they still have eggs left over. They pay to have them stored and they ended up with triplets so they don’t want anymore children. What do they do with the leftover eggs?
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