Originally published at: COVID-19 has upended the lives of Black Market Sperm Donors | Boing Boing
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Some in the known-donor world can also become territorial, claiming certain geographic regions and ousting new men who try donating to women in those areas.
Cut to 25-30 years later, when dozens of couples who all unknowingly share the same bio-dad start having kids of their own.
“Toxic masculinity” doesn’t come close to describing the irresponsible behaviour of these donors.
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The New York Times has pumped up a huge load of great articles recently about the sperm donation industry.
Nicely done.
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This really doesn’t compute, its not like there is a shortage of the stuff.
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It doesn’t last very long outside of cold storage. And, just like hydrogen (the most abundant element in the universe), it is hard to get in its pure form.
really? coulda fooled me
The only problem would be if there was a genetic condition that led to a disease. Incest doesn’t lead to imbeciles & monsters. It’s just a bad idea to give kin a reason to kill kin over a sex partner.
Can I get a Tiger King-eque documentary on this?
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I thought the puns were good, but were too dense, the sentences too girthy. Not spread out enough.
Put another way, they came too quickly.
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Yes. It probably needs another 20 years to unfold first.
I’m not a genetic counseling expert or anything; but it’s my understanding that studies on populations where cultural factors have provided a natural experiment in relatively high consanguinity generally show a bunch of unpleasant things well before you either get a nice, decisive, Bio101, ghastly recessive trait or go full Habsburg.
That said, it’s inconveniently one of those taboos that is least justified when it is strongest and vice versa: in absence of some particularly decisive recessive trait or similar occasional cousin marriages don’t really run much risk; but if it’s all children of cousin marriages marrying cousins over multiple generations the morbidity and mortality numbers tend to get a bit grim.
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how on earth would you track down and oust competing sperm donors? Hey buzz off this is my street corner? I certainly don’t have the answer but I’m willing to bet it could be exploitable in a new reality tv series. winner inseminates all ?
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With guys like this, probably peeing on the pavement to mark their turf.
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The city I live in has a community with a high rate of first cousin marriages. This builds on their centuries old tradition of occasional first cousin marriages. You would think that moving to the big city would challenge this tradition, but with with modernity came increased wealth which actually increased their rate of close-kin marriages – so as to keep the wealth in the family. In my local hospital children born to this group reportedly* has a 20% higher likelihood of congenital health problems.
*A report from the ministry of health.
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Interestingly, the study you cite seems to show that incest would be self correcting. In other words, incest leads to neonatal deaths.
And to their ideological enablers who keep insisting that we can construct families however we want and no harm will come to the children severed from their biological parents.
Still pretty sure that it’s none of your business if, when, and how another person chooses to procreate.
Raising a child apart from one or both of their biological parents/donors ≠ trying to corner the sperm donor market in a specific geographic region.
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There are many legitimate ways to construct families beyond the traditional male and female marriage and biological procreation. Sometimes the best thing one can do is sever a child from the biogical parents if one or more of the latter are abusive or negligent.
The problem occurs when respect for consent, public health, transparency, and/or the welfare of the children is thrown out the window (as happened here). I’m the bio-kids of these irresponsible macho arseholes would be better off severed from them.
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Damn right we can. Two mums, two dads, adopted or assisted by a lab, whatever works for them.
Loving the kids counts for more than anything else.
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