According to the Washington Post article, published Monday May 1st, linked above, it appears there are more Donor 401 offspring out there. Most interesting fact of the article is that a woman out there had 17 vials of unused sperm from Donor 401 which she is donating to the other mothers who are still interested in having more children who would be full siblings to their existing kids.
What's scary / amazing is how many other donors out there have this many kids. More than we know I am sure. More reasons that the cryobanks should be required to collect live birth info and cap out the maximum possible births from a single donor.
Granted the cryobanks could do nothing about vials previously sold but once the cap is reached the remaining vials (if any) perhaps should be taken out of currently available inventories. I am not sure whether these vials should be destroyed as if something happened to a past client's children you would want them to have the ability to have others I guess. I don't have all the answers but just feel that regulations should exist capping out possible kids.
I know I've mentioned this before, but this is exactly the case in the UK. No more than 10 families may be created using the same donor. Any number of subsequent full siblings are allowed. It seems to work pretty well and reduces the risk of accidental incest significantly.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it just seems right this way. If I knew that my kids might have hundreds of half siblings out there it would make me very uncomfortable.