Disclosing the origins of life : Editorial Calling for Gamete Registry
Disclosing the origins of life
Published May 12, 2006
The Tribune's readers recently were treated to an update on Donor 401, the anonymous sperm donor who has sired at least 25 children around the country. According to a story that first appeared in the Washington Post, 401 is of German extraction, had a warm relationship with his mother and tans well. These traits apparently made his seed a hot commodity at the Fairfax Cryobank in Virginia.
Some women who bore his biological children met on a Web site; others came forward as their story received national publicity.
For all they know, those children may have countless other siblings. After all, the offspring of anonymous sperm and egg donors don't usually find out about one another.
And there's the rub.
Most donors--often they're college students who need money--demand anonymity. And most consumers of other people's genetic material prefer it that way. Protected by a cloak of privacy and by the utter lack of regulation in the area of assisted reproduction, donors can sire dozens--even hundreds--of babies.
One man, now in his 60s, told Tribune reporter Judith Graham last year that he had spent 16 years supplementing his income by selling his sperm. What's wrong with this picture? Human beings have a right and a need to know their biological history. They should know if one of their parents has a heart problem or carries a defective gene. And they should know if their intended mate shares their DNA. Incest is not just a grave taboo in many religions; it's also ill-advised for health reasons.
The solution is obvious: a centralized registry of gamete (sperm and egg) and embryo donors containing medical and genetic information.
The registry could be set up in a way that allows donors to remain anonymous. Only if all sides agreed would identifying information be disclosed.
This is not something that can be done overnight. A host of questions will need to be worked through by all the stakeholders, including what information should be reported, who should be responsible for maintaining it and how its privacy could be protected.
In the meantime, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine could issue practice guidelines, and fertility clinics could voluntarily maintain some basic biological and genetic information about the donors and keep track of the patients whose babies carry the donor genes. Many are already doing so, but Nanette Elster, an expert in reproductive law, says it would help if they all collected the same information and stored it in the same format.
"We need to think for the future," said Elster, a scholar at Chicago's Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future who says her 3-year-old daughter is the "gift" of an anonymous sperm donor. "We need to think about the kids, and the kids' kids."
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
http://di-dad.blogspot.com/2006/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-calling-for.html
Published May 12, 2006
The Tribune's readers recently were treated to an update on Donor 401, the anonymous sperm donor who has sired at least 25 children around the country. According to a story that first appeared in the Washington Post, 401 is of German extraction, had a warm relationship with his mother and tans well. These traits apparently made his seed a hot commodity at the Fairfax Cryobank in Virginia.
Some women who bore his biological children met on a Web site; others came forward as their story received national publicity.
For all they know, those children may have countless other siblings. After all, the offspring of anonymous sperm and egg donors don't usually find out about one another.
And there's the rub.
Most donors--often they're college students who need money--demand anonymity. And most consumers of other people's genetic material prefer it that way. Protected by a cloak of privacy and by the utter lack of regulation in the area of assisted reproduction, donors can sire dozens--even hundreds--of babies.
One man, now in his 60s, told Tribune reporter Judith Graham last year that he had spent 16 years supplementing his income by selling his sperm. What's wrong with this picture? Human beings have a right and a need to know their biological history. They should know if one of their parents has a heart problem or carries a defective gene. And they should know if their intended mate shares their DNA. Incest is not just a grave taboo in many religions; it's also ill-advised for health reasons.
The solution is obvious: a centralized registry of gamete (sperm and egg) and embryo donors containing medical and genetic information.
The registry could be set up in a way that allows donors to remain anonymous. Only if all sides agreed would identifying information be disclosed.
This is not something that can be done overnight. A host of questions will need to be worked through by all the stakeholders, including what information should be reported, who should be responsible for maintaining it and how its privacy could be protected.
In the meantime, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine could issue practice guidelines, and fertility clinics could voluntarily maintain some basic biological and genetic information about the donors and keep track of the patients whose babies carry the donor genes. Many are already doing so, but Nanette Elster, an expert in reproductive law, says it would help if they all collected the same information and stored it in the same format.
"We need to think for the future," said Elster, a scholar at Chicago's Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future who says her 3-year-old daughter is the "gift" of an anonymous sperm donor. "We need to think about the kids, and the kids' kids."
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
http://di-dad.blogspot.com/2006/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-calling-for.html
posted by DI_Dad at 11:30 PM
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