Christ, what a dickwad!
Sounds to me like a guy who’s had a rough life. I feel bad that someone decided to plaster his face and medical history all over the Internet.
I’m sorry, am I not feeling sorry for the right party here?
" healthy genius" donor turns out to be a psychotic criminal"
A fine line exists between the two.
why not just call it “social engineering”?
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Intelligence is an X-linked trait. Mother-child IQ correlations are high; father-child IQ correlations are low. For smart kids, you want a smart mum; dad is largely irrelevant.
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Especially in the cognitive sciences (which includes neuro), intelligence and mental illness frequently coexist. There’s a fair bit of truth to the “all psychs are crazy” stereotype.
It’s OK to think there is something wrong and/or something deserving empathy to any of multiple actors involved.
e.g., I don’t care if it was Nikola Tesla’s sperm, no way should that be doled out 36 times.
And yeah, not sure why MSN or others need to ID the donor, regardless as to how much it is or isn’t a matter of public record since this became a matter for the courts. How about identifying everyone involved at the sperm bank?
- Intelligence is an X-linked trait. Mother-child IQ correlations are high; father-child IQ correlations are low. For smart kids, you want a smart mum; dad is largely irrelevant.
Source? Because I know of many people that isn’t true. My family included.
Some children do inherit an X chromosome from their father. But they have other genetic defects, such as missing-penis syndrome that hinders them from advancing very far in today’s society.
Layperson summary: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/brainy-sons-owe-intelligence-to-their-mothers-1339099.html
Looking for “x-linked IQ” on Google Scholar or Pubmed should get you a variety of research publications on the topic.
And, to clarify: intelligence appears to be substantially X-linked. Daughters get one X from each parent, so both parents have roughly equal influence (although the father’s X came from his mother, so again the female inheritance line is ultimately key).
The X chromosome of a son, however, always comes from the mother. Father-son IQ correlations appear to be substantially (but not entirely) coincidental.
Sounds like some people are disappointed with their children.
FUN FACT: roughly half of all humans inherit an X chromosome from their father.
Anyway, this goes beyond intelligence. If the sperm bank isn’t even doing the most basic of background checks then you have to wonder how many genetic disorders they let slip past their screening process too.
Yup, and I should not have glossed past that point in my initial post. Accidentally stumbled into the old “male as default” bullshit.
make that 38 children.
i always wondered what my dad did for money after the divorce.
now i know.
Hey, who jizzed in the gene pool!
Say what you want about the parties involved here, but since schizophrenia is known to have a major genetic component this is definitely a major bad move on the part of the sperm bank.
So the broker provided the opportunity to buy sperm from a firm that lied on behalf of donors about their IQ, had no screening, and were effectively buying sperm cheap from anyone and marketing it as from someone.
That’s bad and they should be held to account.
But I wonder if the children won’t see more harm from suppostions about what is possible for anyone being presented as probable for them based on this information.
I gotta say, if I required such substance, I wouldn’t farm it out, I would consider people I know.
edit- And as the donor, according to the article, doesn’t seem to have lied to anyone, he should sue the company too regardless of the waivers they doubtless required. For the breach of privacy and the misrepresentation of his history that led to the breach being so harmful.
What a great nature vs nurture experiment! It would be interesting to follow the children, as they are raised in what presumably would be middle-class families with loving parents, and see how they turn out. Ethically, you could never deliberately do such and experiment, but here fate has created just such a situation.
I feel bad for both the donor and the family. I didn’t realize they had identified the man because I didn’t click through, and it is irresponsible unimportant details in the story about a family purposely misled by a business (or a family and a business being purposely misled by a business).
In fact, it immediately places implicit blame on the donor for something the sperm bank/fertility center is expected to be responsible for. Awful reporting.
