Posted on 07/30/2003 9:10:20 AM PDT by presidio9
'Who's your daddy?'' That's a phrase that's hip among the young of today. But for hundreds of thousands of people it's a question they want to be able to answer. And I'm not referring to adopted children. I'm talking about children born through artificial insemination.
On campuses throughout the United States, collegians are earning money by making deposits at sperm banks. And the sperm banks make themselves well-known on campuses. I know several young college men who have made deposits to them. Students will do all sorts of things to earn money while in school. They'll donate blood. They'll sign up for all sorts of psychological and physical tests on campus. And many go to sperm banks because they pay well.
On a recently aired CBS ''60 Minutes'' program, Lesley Stahl interviewed a graduate who had made 200 such deposits during his undergraduate years. He didn't think about the fact that his deposits could one day become many human lives. He only thought about earning some money during his lean college years.
Years later, much to his surprise, the sperm bank called him and asked if he would be willing to be contacted by his then-18-year old daughter.
The program showed another man, himself the product of artificial insemination, who was on a search for his biological father. He had gone to the clinic where his mother had been inseminated, but they wouldn't give him a name. Still, while he was searching, he discovered another man, conceived with help from the same clinic, who--through DNA testing--turned out to be his half brother.
Clinics today ask if donors would like to remain anonymous. Most say they would like to remain unnamed. So all any offspring can learn about will be his blood type, allergies, family medical history, personality, physical description, and education--but not his name.
The college sperm depositors I've spoken with laugh and say they've filled out forms at the banks describing themselves as straight-A students who speak multiple languages and are heading into graduate school when, in reality, they're carrying a 2.9 grade point, have been on academic probation at least once, speak no foreign languages and have no present interest in graduate school. They tell me the sperm banks don't check and they just sort of get carried away with their personal descriptions.
A check on the Internet of sperm bank locations shows all sorts of promises for couples having a hard time conceiving. The banks tout the fact that they draw from universities in the area, that the donors are either in school or have graduated. And, no doubt, they do a lot of good for people who have been previously unable to have children.
The sperm bank sites list all of their successes. They proclaim that they create families and that their donors have high sperm counts. One of the sites even has happy little sperms swimming across the Web page as one reads the copy. Another announces that it's possible, for an extra fee, to actually conceive siblings because it can produce sperm from the same donor for a later pregnancy.
But here's where the trouble is. If students are depositing in sperm banks multiple times at sperm banks located near universities and couples are bearing children through the use of that sperm, what's to stop people in a given area from producing half brothers and sisters who have no idea that they're half brothers and sisters?
And what happens when they grow up and start to date? What if a half brother and his half sister meet and fall in love without knowing their relationship? And what happens if they get married and have children? Are we going to have village idiots running around?
It's not out of the question because we know, scientifically, what interfamily breeding produces. And it's not out of the question that some of these artificially conceived children--born in the same era and in the same area--will meet someday. Remember the man on ''60 Minutes'' who happened upon his half brother while looking for the identity of his biological father?
Is this something science thought about when so many sperm banks were licensed?
If not, it's something everyone ought to think about today. Every deposit made to a sperm bank has the potential to become a living, breathing, thinking human being. And that human being may want to know whence he or she came. Parents ought to talk about this with their college-age sons. Sperm banks ought to talk about this with their depositors--and limit an individual's number of deposits.
Otherwise, ''Who's your daddy?'' is, in the future, going to have to become, ''What's your DNA?''
You mean smart kids don't whack off in a doctor's office???
So9
I'll bet it did!
Thanks for the input... but how do you explain Arkansas?
lol... and did that $5,000 help you find a seeing-eye dog?
So, we have successful married couples (assuming they are somewhat educated and can afford this process) versus the unwed welfare recipient/drug addict with 9 kids from random strangers. Hmmmm, tough choice.
Thanx to our good friends in the State of Kentucky!
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