Dangers of Artificial Procreation - Five Children Suffer Genetic Disease Passed Down By Sperm Donor

LifeSiteNews ^ | 5/23/06 | Gudrun Schultz

[metmom]

No *we* don't play God every time *we* conceive a child and see it through to birth because the conception part is not a matter of any man's will. And the way *see it through to birth* sounds is like we choose to have the baby against the natural order of things, like keeping a pregnancy going is something that has to be worked at. Sometimes it is but it's the premature ending of a natural course of events, like abortion, that is messing with things; *playing God* if you will; being the one who decides who should live and die and when.

Conception often happens against man's will and it often doesn't happen when someone wills it. And besides, letting *nature take it's course* is absolutely not the same thing as designer babies where someone gets tested and a bunch of eggs get fertilized and the best are picked out. THAT'S playing God.

[AnAmericanMother]

There are some cases of very nasty genetic defects (such as Huntington's Chorea) being spread by particularly prolific individuals. Some guy in Brazil apparently was single-handedly responsible for most of the Huntington's cases in South America . . .

I'm starting to look for a Black Lab boy as a companion for my Chocolate girl, which means poring over pedigrees and writing lots of letters . . .

[little jeremiah]

People seeing themselves as the creators and designers will invariably create a type of hell on earth. It's a branch of utopianism. The creation isn't good enough, so we'll do a better job.

The creation is designed the way it is for a reason. We can work with it - we can ruin stuff, or go along with the rules and improve things up to a point. But going against natural law will always create hell.

[brytlea]

I think we have some areas where there are a few guys producing lots of children as well. I'm sure something will pop up.
susie

[Mrs. Don-o]

It's also a trouble in traditionalist Islamic tribal cultures. First, the richest 5% of the men monopolize 20% of the women (average 4 wives per man) while the poorest 20% of the men have almost no chance of marrying and establishing families of their own. Plus, they favor cousin-marriage as an ideal (because cousins have the same grandparents, and thus the grandfather's patrimony --- his flocks or whatever ---stays in the family.) They end up having lots of congenital abnormalities from defective recessive genes.

[brytlea]

Very good point. I have read articles about the problems in their kids. Very sad.
susie

[ThinkDifferent]

There are inherent dangers in sperm donation.

Absolutely. And this is true whether the donation is done in a clinic or in the traditional manner.

[ThinkDifferent]

Life is not, nor should it be, safe. Without playing god we'd still be living in the trees, not even in caves.

Well said. Really "playing God" is a meaningless term, which only means that the accuser doesn't like a particular technology. Environmentalist wackos would say we're playing God by using GM crops.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The big argument against sperm-vending is that every child has a right to have his origins in the loving sexual union of his married parents. This is not just an "ideal," but a right. To deliberately start a kid in any other way, is to rob him of some portion of what he has a right to as a human child.

If a kid is born lacking this (e.g. out of wedlock) then of course we do what we can to supply what HE NEEDS, e.g. the unwed mother gets married, or the child is adopted. This is in response to the child's needs. It repairs, to some exgent, his initial loss.

But to intentionally conceive a child outside of the marital embrace, lacking the normal elements of parentage, is to set aside his needs as being less important than the adults' wants. That's why it's selfishness on the part of the adults. And that's not right.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I agree. The term "playing God" should be retired. Its meaning is so non-specific that you spend the rest of your time haggling about definitions.

I'd like to see a good discussion at some point about the evils we bring on ourselves by failing to "play human."

That probably has some definition problems, too, but the answers might be more equally accessable.

Now I'm ducking out of here to do math with my son.Oh the glories of homeschooling. AAAAAUUGGGHHH!