HUMANAE VITAE
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Posted on 05/23/2006 4:08:27 PM PDT by wagglebee
MICHIGAN, United States, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Demonstrating again the dangers of artificial procreation, doctors reported last week on the case of five children fathered by the same sperm donor have inherited a rare and often fatal disease from him.
The rare disease naturally affects only about one child in five million, said Dr. Lawrence A. Boxer, director of paediatric haematology and oncology at the University of Michigan, who discovered the cases. When four families with affected children came to him in one year, "it became pretty striking," he told the AP.
The families had seven children, including three sets of twins, from the same donor. All but two carried an identical strain of the disease.
Severe congenital neutropenia results in a missing white blood cell which leaves the children vulnerable to infections and leukemia. Daily injections with a drug called Neupogen can help the children resist infections, but it does not protect from leukemia. The drug costs $200 per day, although Dr. Boxer told the AP many families receive it for free if they participate in a study.
In very rare instances, a carrier of the gene will not develop the disease. Doctors speculate that the donor was one such carrier, since he would have been too ill to be accepted as a sperm donor if he had developed the disease himself.
The children have a 50% chance of passing on the gene and the disease to their own children.
While sperm donors are routinely tested for common genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia, they are not tested for the rare disorders that affect only a few, said Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson at the Baylor College of Medicine.
To protect the anonymity of the families and the donor, Dr. Boxer declined to reveal the name of the sperm bank. It is not known if the man has fathered additional children, or if he is aware of the disease he carries.
See LifeSiteNews.com's special section on the dangers of artificial procreation:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/invitro/
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
Dangers of Artificial Procreation - Five Children Suffer Genetic Disease Passed Down By Sperm Donor
Families are about a married mother and father reproducing.
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I would have happened once, possibly twice, but it certainly would not have happened five times without the tests being done.
Ping
Unfortunately, we "play God" every time we concieve a child and see it through to birth. I think in the case of articificial insemination, that there is an excessive amount of opportunity for one person to pass genes on to future generations, compared to natural procreation.
Usually, a man is limited by his personality, lack of good looks, or some other factor that keeps him from being able to impregnate too many women. Thus, a man who might otherwise be considered a less-than-desirable mate in the wild, and therefore unable to procreate, could become over-represented in the gene pool, as it were. It is possible that marriage as an institution originated in part as a means to keep men from becoming similarly over-represented. I think it may be time to put a limit on how many times a sperm broker can broker any one man's sperm.
My daughter is pregnant and met a lady about her age or a little older (40) who had had her tubes tied. She was pregnant, too, by artificial insemination.
Then there are women who have hormonal shots to reverse the natural course of events to become impregnated, nothing that I would want to do, can't imagine the circumstances that might impel me to do that.
There is one thing I did think about though which doesn't quite fall into this category. If medical science learns to transfer a developing baby from one woman to another, I was thinking that if I felt I was healthy enough, I might volunteer as an incubator to try to carry the baby to term to save it because something goes wrong with the pregnancy. I don't know what the morality gurus; i.e., men in Rome and other theologians would think about that. I don' think it can be done yet. I think we are coming close to where we might be able to incubate a baby through to full term outside the womb in some kind of artificial womb.
Generally, I agree with you that playing God is neve safe, even if it is morally acceptable to this group or that. The lines get blurry there though with all the other things medical science can do, like open heart surgery for example. In a way that is playing God and there is a risk factor to one degree or other depending, but not playing God can lead to imminent death or severe disability.
A man has been doing some electrical and plumbing for me who had open heart surgery to repair a defective heart valve. Won't get into too much of that, but he whips around better than I do, and I'm only two years older. He's very agile and energetic despite having had severe arthritis for which he has taken medication in the past. Amazing. He got a lot of things done for me that had been put off for years. I'm extremely grateful to have those problems fixed, multiple ones.
Guess I drifted off course on that one. Sorry.
So true, except some of them have sense enough not to risk any more pregnancies if a pattern seems to be developing or a problem making further pregnancies very risky for either the mother or the children is diagnosed.
"Playing god.." Remember Prometheus? When humans got their hands on fire, an old shaman [forgot his name] was mouthing these very words: "playing god is never safe"... Life is not, nor should it be, safe. Without playing god we'd still be living in the trees, not even in caves. Besides, playing god is a lot of fun and could be made a learning experience, as that shaman found out when another member of the tribe poked a burning branch in his [shaman's] derriere.
Possibly one or two children (if they were spaced close together) but the disorder would have been recognized and he probably would have chosen not to father more sickly children.
So far 5 known offspring have the disorder, question is, how many possible others are there? How many times did the sperm bank sell his "product".
Families are about a married mother and father reproducing.
Sorry dont agree.
Mother of four adoptive children.
You are absolutely correct, and I sincerely apologize. I wasn't even considering the total love that is demonstrated when a child is adopted.
In dogs we call this the popular sire effect. It IS something to consider.
susie
Sorry dont agree.
Mother of four adoptive children.
The exception does not make the rule. Families are about a married mother and a father reproducing, even though a couple can have a family through adopting children.
-A8
There is a certain AFC/NFC/GRHRCH Labrador that is doubled and tripled up in so many pedigrees, that the ads in the UKC Hunting Retriever News now tout that he is NOT in the pedigree of the dogs offered for stud.
Of course, artificial insemination made it possible for this boy to breed way too many bitches -- far more than he could have covered naturally.
It's even true when AI is NOT allowed -- there is a Seal Point Siamese male that appears all over the pedigrees. I was at the Atlanta CFA All Breed show the year he bit right through a judge's hand (I was standing outside the ring waiting for the Blue Points to go up.) He had the most hideous temperament I have ever seen in a Siamese - and that's saying a lot, they are "tetchy" cats. But everybody bred to him because he was gorgeous and a Quadruple Grand.
When I purchased a young male kitten I took a look at his seven-generation pedigree, and noted with some unease that this cat appeared right at the back of the male line. I bought him anyway, because his mom was the most laid-back cat I had ever met (a mother cat who would let a total stranger pick up her kittens from the queening box, and smile at you while you did it . . . ) Amazingly, he turned out to be a mild grouch, just a mild grouch, but a little mean nonetheless. He's the only one of my cats who has ever bitten anybody (my husband and my son, and both of them had it coming . . . )
Well, whadyaknow. There are inherent dangers in sperm donation. *It's not nice to fool mother nature.*
Oh, I know what you mean about siamese being tetchy! My aunt and uncle had one when I was growing up....scarey cat! ;)
ANyway, in goldens we've had a couple of very prominent sires. Nice dogs, with good stuff to contribute, but like all of us with some negatives (we all have some bad genes!). And, as you mention in your cat example, we see whatever those traits were all over the gene pool now. It's too bad with dogs. Imagine the effect if it's a human gene pool? (in fact, makes you wonder if some of the lethal genes in certain human populations might have come about in a similar way, a prolific ancestor who happened to carry that gene).
susie
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