
The children of Donor H898 – 12 autistic children fathered by same sperm donor - masonic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-children-of-donor-h898/2019/09/14/dcc191d8-86da-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html
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vanattab
Ugh... This article make me want to vomit. The idea in the very near future we
are going "filter" out people who's brains work like mine because "clearly”
people like us can never lead happy productive lives is grotesque.

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legostormtroopr
Chill with the pity party. Autism is a spectrum and for every person like you
who is doing fine, there is a child whose brains doesn’t work fine and can’t
talk, can’t socialise and can’t communicate. Parents of children like that
become full time, life time caters and I’ve seen with what happens when they
realise their children won’t ever get “better” and have to figure out who will
loom after their kids for the rest of the child’s life after they pass.

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toomuchtodo
Indeed. A family friend (single mom, dad bolted, financially stretched, we all
pitch in when we can) has an autistic daughter who, in her mid teens, is
barely potty trained (and who might never be higher functioning). Her other
younger daughter, without autism, acts out because she gets whatever attention
is left over after the mother has provided all the care necessary for the
autistic daughter.

The mother I refer to should have the right to opt out if this type of
existence if she could have. If we’re going to support woman having
reproductive autonomy, genetic testing pre and post conception (and any
resulting termination) goes with that. If someone doesn’t want to have an
autistic child (and medical technology can provide a high level of confidence
when making the decision), that is their choice.

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em-bee
there is a huge difference between aborting a child because it has been
diagnosed with something, vs choosing a partner based on how their medical
history could affect their children.

everyone should be free to choose who they have children with.

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toomuchtodo
Everyone _should_ be free to choose who is contributing genetic material to
their child (if you read the entire article, the donor in question was not
entirely honest about the facts about themselves they put forth). But I think
you’ll see people err on the side of caution, just as birth rates have
plummeted across the world when you have reproductive freedom. Ain’t no prizes
spending your life being miserable.

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em-bee
yes, that's the point. the donor/agency was denying that choice by not having
all the information.

but i don't get your second point. yes, people err on the side of caution, so
what?

if we develop a society where having children is difficult then we are doing
something wrong. and to respond to the start of the thread, if we develop a
society where having autistic or handicapped children is difficult, we also
ought to change things. but either way we need to make these changes by
choice. we can not force people to have children, nor can we force people to
take risks that they don't want to take.

this is especially critical in the US where there is little or no support for
people who end up carrying the burden.

i heard someone say something like this once: "handicapped are not suffering
by themselves, but they are a test for us in how we treat them". if they
suffer, we are doing it wrong.

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DanBC
> He was blond and blue-eyed, 6-foot-1, 240 pounds, and appeared to be smart
> and accomplished. His profile said he had a master’s degree and was working
> as a medical photographer. His hobbies included long-distance running,
> reading and art.

Isn't this enough to identify him, not just in sperm banks but in real life?

> And most important, Rizzo says, he had a clean bill of health, according to
> his profile — having scribbled “NA” and a strikethrough line on all but one
> of the more than 100 medical questions, including mental health ones, posed
> by sperm banks. (His paternal grandfather had had prostate cancer at age
> 85.)

I'd be interested in what "not applicable" means here, and how the mother
understood it.

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gedy
Seems like an expected side effect of not knowing or having a relationship
with genetic parent to filter out traits. Sueing won't fix that..

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londons_explore
I sometimes hear people talking negatively about prospective partners... "He's
rude". "He is too much of a lad", "He isn't mature", etc.

All of that is them filtering out those traits from their future children.
Sperm banks can never do that.

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dixielee
Do the sperm banks add thimerosol or other ingredients to keep sperm fresh?
Never know...

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strikelaserclaw
it's crazy that some of these sperm banks absolutely did no background checks
to verify some of these profiles.

