Man conceived from sperm donor finds 32 siblings

While slurping through my morning pot of coffee, I came across this feature article about a man, sired by a sperm donor to one of his two lesbian “mothers,” who begins looking for his siblings. Money quote:

Children are being conceived in a way that robs them of their humanity, their identity, and their heritage. They are being commodified, turned into products to be bought, created, and sold. While the desire for a child is understandable, at what point do we stop this commercialization of human beings? A child is a privilege, a gift — not a right to which everyone deserves simply because they want one. And perhaps it’s time that the best interests of the children being conceived take precedence, rather than the feelings of the parents and the unchecked greed of an unregulated fertility industry.

Read it all: We were 'mass-produced': Man conceived from sperm donor finds 32 siblings

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Very sad. It really seems like our society didn’t consider the negative consequences when diving head-first into the practice of sperm donation, and if I’m not mistaken it’s a much more tightly regulated practice elsewhere in the world.

I was conceived by a sperm donor as well because my Dad was infertile. I didn’t grow up in a Christian household, and I got saved at 21.

I’ve done 23andMe and AncestryDNA, and it’s been fascinating finding all my half-siblings (so far I’ve found 7) and seeing the downright bizarre similarities between some of them and myself (for example, most of us have some connection to Psychology, either interest or having actual degrees). One of the donor-siblings is a Mormon, and he and I have developed a friendship. We also triangulated who the donor is using common genetic relatives information on Ancestry, although, he doesn’t want to meet any of us (one of the mom’s reached out to him on the phone, coincidently he’s a Psychiatrist). It also makes me wonder what kinds of covenantal connections there may or may not be between us and him in God’s estimation. As far as I know, none of these people are saved, so I pray for their salvation regularly.

Thanks for sharing the article!

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The newspaper at my undergraduate school regularly had advertisements recruiting sperm donors. One of my professors, who was an evangelist for Darwinian materialism, wondered why students wouldn’t donate since it provided the opportunity not only to spread one’s genes, but to also get paid for it. Although I wasn’t a Christian at the time, I felt strongly that I did not want a child out there for whom I could not be a father.

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There are different “discoveries” which these DNA registries can generate, perhaps more common than the ones you’re discussing here. One recently happened in my sister-in-law’s family.

Her children (my nieces and nephews) have trendier sorts of interests, Ancestry and 23andMe included. One of these (maybe both?) will notify you if you ask when someone who is a close relative also permits his DNA “matches” to you to be reported to you.

And, so, my nieces and nephews were all notified about a 1st cousin that had just joined Ancestry. Trouble was - they already knew all their cousins, and this fellow wasn’t among them. Turns out that one of my sister-in-law’s siblings had sired a son on a young woman with whom he was having a fling while passing through Hawaii.

It took a bit of sleuthing - both within the databases and some probing questions directed at the only fellow in the family who’d passed through Hawaii that long ago. But, sho’ 'nuff - the ex-military fellow discovered a son he didn’t know he had, and the son discovered a father and cousins and such he never knew he had.

It seems to have turned out amicably. They’ve all met up face to face, including the dad and son. But, I imagine there are plenty of such discoveries which are not at all happy for the discoverers.

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Wow. An incredible story, and I imagine there are, and will be, many more like it. May God give us wisdom and grace to navigate these troubled waters.

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That’s correct, you can choose to opt-in or not.

Very interesting, glad to hear that ended amicably. I have a friend who found out his grandmother had been unfaithful through one of these sites; that his dad was not related to his grandfather. My friend found this out because of an (up to that point unknown) uncle match who reached out to him wanting to meet my friend’s father, but my friend said no, and decided not to tell his father any of this. The whole thing was (understandably) very disturbing to him.

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I just got shivers reading this. Luke 8:17 came to mind. Good reminder to keep watch on ourselves.

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Yes, an amicable outcome is all the more fascinating as the spiritual “houses” are radically different. In the case of my sister-in-law’s family, she and her siblings are all (at a minimum) nominal evangelicals, though she and her children are far more overtly Christian and unashamedly so. On the other hand, the cousin from out of the blue is way over in the fetid edges of political/cultural liberalism.

Some time ago, I was reading a feature article (sorry, no link; no special desire to find one, as I don’t give a frittered fig) about the British Royals, and how DNA analysis of various remains demonstrates off-label progeny who were counted as legit, though the evidence shows they are not. Looks like grounds for disestablishment of the monarchy there.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: A brief history of American Anglicanism

Police can feed cold-case DNA to these DNA registries also, and get back matches like, “the possessor of this DNA is a close relative of this person who is in our database.” Then the cops just need to figure out which close relatives of that person were in the right place at the right time to commit the crime.

Some people are insufficiently paranoid about stuff.

OTOH, one of my great grandmothers took the secret of her children’s father(s?) to the grave with her, so these registries might be a way to connect with an unknown side of the family. I’ve never thought about the fact that this might be an unwelcome surprise for my great grandfather’s family. The events in question happened in the early 20th century, but if he and his legitimate progeny lived normal lifespans, there are certainly people alive who knew him.

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