Last Splash

Wednesday, 04 October 2006

I don't normally have much of an opinion on birth politics, as I'll call it, but I did read an interesting article in Self magazine today about sperm donor children and what happens when the parents try to get an accurate health history because their children are experiencing rare diseases. I have many feelings on this issue. I think it's terrible that parents are lied to (either by the donor or the Cryobank) and the children suffer from it. I also think that in an industry such as this, it is important to let the donor remain anonymous, b/c at the very least he does not want 14 children coming after him for child support, etc.

I may be slightly hypocritical when I say this, but I also think it's selfish to want to have a child so badly you'd be willing to buy someone's sperm rather than adopt a newborn that will probably suffer the horrors of foster care or worse as it ages. I understand that some people out there really want to have children of their own (like my fiance) but if it's not the genes of the two of you, then you really are not having children of your own, are you?

As with every other issue, I also try to remain as Libertarian about it as possible, and say that although it's sad that it happens, no one can honestly expect the government to step in and regulate every little technological advancement that comes our way. Be accountable for your own actions, people. What really needs to happen is that donors need to be honest, cryobanks need to spend the gobs of money they're making on research into donor and family medical histories, and parents that use sperm banks need to understand that they are taking the risk of not really knowing their child's full medical geneology.