Registry may track egg, sperm donors

[951-Riverside]

Source: Los Angeles Times



Troubled by the health history and backgrounds of some anonymous egg and sperm donors, leaders in the fertility industry have said in recent weeks that they would create a national registry to track donors and birth outcomes.

In response to a Dec. 9 article in The Times about a child born with a terminal genetic disease, representatives from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, a fertility industry organization, said they intend to record the histories of donors and surrogate mothers to help prevent such tragedies.

The Times article was about a girl from Rancho Mirage, conceived with the help of an anonymous egg donor, who was born with Tay-Sachs. She is nearly 2, and the neurological disease probably will kill her before she turns 5.

The gay couple who chose the donor did not know that she was a carrier of the Tay-Sachs mutation, nor did the donor herself. For a child to get the disease, both biological parents must be Tay-Sachs carriers. One of the men, whose sperm was used to fertilize the donor's egg, also carried the mutation but was unaware that he did.

After learning about the child with Tay-Sachs, neither the egg donor nor the agency that hired her attempted to contact the other families and agencies that used the donor's eggs. Some families may have embryos not yet implanted.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-eggs3jan03,1,4469202.story?coll=la-headlines-health&track=crosspromo

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Then I ain't donatin' no sperm. The whole..

whack it in a jar or suck out eggs with a huge needle always wierded me out anyway. If you want my baby but don't want to do it the old-fashioned way, then too bad.

With all the excess population, the whole industry should just go away.

[Hoof Hearted]

5. But there is a demand, and so it will not. Your sperm will likely not be missed.

In fact it's very hard to qualify to "whack it in a jar". You have to undergo a massive amount of testing, have a good health history, be accomplished and good looking.

Tay-Sachs requires TWO bad copies of the gene, so I guess the guy in this article who's sperm was used with the donated egg shouldn't be allowed to reproduce either. He doesn't meet the standards of the perfect human.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Registered? That means the male donor will be paying child support.

[SoCalDem]

3. It's too bad that people are not tested for the worst of the worst

inherited diseases before they even think of reproducing..

If it can be tested for, and you belong to a group that has a likelihood of having the gene, testing would be a good way to prevent these kinds of tragedies:(...poor little girl:cry:

[Hoof Hearted]

4. Well. Obviously we should force everyone to undergo genetic testing before they are allowed to

contribute their genetic lineage to our pristine pools. Why that's exactly how it happens when people hook up at bars, right?