Sperm Donor Never Reported Fatal Illness: 24 Biological Children Could Be Affected
Sperm Donor Health Notifcation
There are many mysteries one inherits when opting to use a stranger’s sperm to conceive. You can get some basics like ethnicity, eye color, education but other aspects are unknown. And one that can affect not just children conceived via a sperm donor but any child conceived at all – is the health issues of the father that are discovered after the child is born. But in a “traditional” family unit the family would be well aware of health problems that developed with the father. But for those in an anonymous situation, not so much. This is what happened with the 24 children born from one sperm donor, they could be victims of a fatal disease.
Rebecca Blackwell had a son named Tyler fifteen years ago. About three years ago they attempted to track down the donor, and through some stellar detective work, they were able to find him. But they also made a life-changing discovery. They learned that – as ABC New reported - “Tyler had inherited his father’s medical condition — a rare aortic heart defect that could have killed him at any moment.”
They had tried to make contact with the sperm donor but he never replied, but from an online ancestry website they found that not only did the donor have the disorder but that his two brothers and grandmother had the genetic disorder as well as a connective tissue disorder called Marfan’s syndrome
So this raises the question, are sperm donors morally and ethically responsible for updating the sperm banks when illnesses and genetic disorders are discovered?
One state is trying to change this. Washington will be “the first state to grant rights to donor-conceived people to gain access to crucial health information about their biological parents.” Also that “, “at a minimum, identifying information and medical history to the fertility clinic.”
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has guidelines in place. “Donors should be healthy and give no history to suggest hereditary diseases,” the guidelines state. “Some institutions offer chromosomal analysis on all donors, but it is not required.”
A spokesman for ASRM said “It’s unfortunate that anyone who has ever developed a disease or disorder, but they will and all you can do is use the best and most practical screening available at the time of donation,” he said. “You can’t screen for everything.”
Do you think there needs to be stricter guidelines for sperm donors? Especially a way to update families of health concerns that could greatly affect their children’s wellbeing?
Photo: Flickr
Good article… I think it is a leap of faith using a donor. You research as much as you can and try to make the best choice. As for access to medical information as the child grows absolutely! I think this is something the sperm banks can motivate/require from their donors. No one is asking for visitation or child support, just simply updated medical information.
First of all, donors are NOT fathers and should never be referred to as such. They are donors. Secondly, the idea that these issues wouldn’t be relevant to a traditional family is nonsense. There are plenty of children born and abandoned by their fathers, or born to mothers who have no idea who the father is, or adopted from other countries, etc… Lastly, donors are required to give detailed medical histories out 2 generations.
I am a carrier for a genetic disease. First, getting testing and confirmation of a genetic disease can be difficult and expensive. Especially if it is not immediatly dibiltating or the disease is recessive (which it is in my case). I think the firms that collect sperm or eggs should have to confirm if Genetic testing was done. While it is impossible to screen for everything, the potential parents need to understand the risks of using someone else’s genetic material. Not only could the medical records be incomplete or inaccurate, there could be undiagnosed conditions such as hey need to be aware that the medical history could be incorrect or incomplete. Also, as far as the record updating, there is no garentee that records can be maintained or that the donor will even get regular medical care. I think the “records” available for for the future children would end up being very disappointing in their reliable information.