Who's Your Daddy?

FoxNews.com ^ | 2003-07-21 | Darragh Worland

[Lorenb420]

NEW YORK

[mewzilla]

I can think of a number of kids who were conceived the old-fashioned way who could ask the same question, though.

[ClearCase_guy]

Sigh. You know we will eventually have articles about genetic problems in offspring whose parents married, and had children the old-fashioned way, and later found out that they are half-brother and half-sister.

[Vesuvian]

As an unmarried adoptee that thought sometimes pops up in the back of my head, but with this it becomes a real possibility. But shouldn't a sibling relationship be discovered with the blood test?

Just wait till the donors get hit for child support! ; )

[ClearCase_guy]

My understanding is that the blood-test is for syphillis only. Sure, they could run a DNA test that might show family relationships but they do not. And remember, although about-to-be married couples are tested for syphillis (now easily curable), we do not test them for AIDS which would make a lot more sense.

I think genetic problems are a long-shot but I don't see any current mechanism that tries to minimize those odds. It's just a crap shoot with odds that are mostly good for you.

[Vesuvian]

Actually I think in NYC they do test for AIDS, they just don't release the results (or is it with babies being born? I forget.)

I would think though, that if I was a donor baby, marrying a donor baby we would have enough sense to make sure we're not related, at least by knowing I'm Subject 2343-B jr., and knowing her "father."

[alloysteel]

Potentially, then, half-siblings could be attracted to each other, marry and have children, which would tend to concentrate certain genetic traits. Leading to congenital malformations, or even certain forms of insanity.

Relax. First, even full-sibling matings do not result in uniformly deformed or disabled offspring. Certain laws of genetics do kick in, if anyone is acquainted with some of the basic findings of an Austrian monk named Mendel. True, genetic dispositions do show up, as the line becomes ever more 'purebred' through inbreeding. But when this same line is outcrossed, the genetic weaknesses, most often carried on a recessive gene, are temporarily covered up, and something called 'hybrid vigor' takes over, making an offspring that exhibits many of the more desirable characteristics of both parents. The next generation of these 'outcrosses' turns out to be somewhat inferior, on average, to the first generation, as some of the recessives begin to reassert.

[joesnuffy]

whoa...and I thought "ship in a bottle" was cool....

[pgyanke]

Let me see if I understand our current culture...

We kill our unborn children, have backlogs of orphans and years of waiting lists on adoptions while we blindly fertilize an infertile couple with solicited "donations."

[goodnesswins]

Not just "infertile couple".....I know a woman who did this after she was divorced. Picked the traits she wanted (hair color, eye color, etc).....from a CATALOG.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Big deal. Adopted kids don't know who their biological parents are, and are no worse off for it.