Sunday, September 18, 2011

150 Half-siblings?

Though sperm donors remain anonymous, they have unique identifying numbers, and registries exist where parents of children conceived through sperm donation can contact each other.  One woman created an online group for children fathered by the donor for her son.  There are now 150 children in the group, and apparently more children are on the way.

Ethical and practical questions are being raised regarding children of sperm donors who father many children.  Besides the possibility of genetically transmitted diseases being passed along, the odds of accidental incest between half-siblings increase.  The United States, however, has no laws limiting the number of children a donor may father.

A recent article in the New York Times discusses these issues.
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1 comment:

  1. Janice M. SellersSeptember 24, 2011 at 5:37 PM

    Interesting "prequel": A friend brought to my attention an article from 2005 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/13/MNG0JFNHAR1.DTL) about a 15-year-old who used DNA to find his donor father. The article mentions fears that sperm donations might slow due to donor concerns over privacy. Apparently they didn't slow that much.

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