Sperm donor fathered 15 kids without telling moms he has genetic IQ disease

[Demovictory9]

A Facebook sperm donor fathered 15 children but never told the mothers he has an inheritable condition that causes learning disabilities.

James MacDougall, 37, fathered children with lesbian women through private donations advertised on social media despite knowing he had incurable Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to low IQ and developmental delay.

MacDougall’s identity came out in a family court battle in Derby, United Kingdom, after he applied for parental responsibility and child arrangement orders for four of his children — even though he originally signed an agreement saying he didn’t want contact with some of his children.

The mothers of the children were opposed to the applications.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/31/sperm-donor-fathered-15-never-shared-he-has-genetic-disease/

[OnDoutside]

1. So he's a Republican ?

[tavernier]

2. Senator.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Devolutionary unnatural unselection

Are they so low on sperm they put 15 of him in the genetic pool?

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Damn, sperm doners are not screened for these types of issues?

Who knew that you could privately donate your sperm on social media.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. The judge said he specifically avoided a clinic so he wouldn't be screened

At the family court hearing, the judge said: “James MacDougall knew that he could not be a sperm donor through a clinic because of his condition.”

The judge said Mr MacDougall had told how he thought Fragile X was “not serious” and it was for “the mothers to do the research”.

But she added: “Even if James MacDougall does not understand the true implications of Fragile X, he does know it prevents him acting through a donor clinic.” She said she had “no confidence” that he would not act as a sperm donor in the future and “no confidence” in him “fully explaining to any woman the true implications of his Fragile X Syndrome”.

“There is therefore a very specific benefit in him being named in the hope that women will look him up on the internet and see this judgment,” she added. “Publishing this judgment without anonymising James MacDougall raises the prospects of wider dissemination of the huge impact using James MacDougall as a sperm donor has had on these mothers.”

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/donor-gave-sperm-despite-risk-7148805

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. I have a question for EVERY female here...

Would YOU use a sperm donor you found on FB? Some of this has to go to the other end of the agreement. Yes, he should be sent away for many years, but dayum.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. He's not being sent away at all - he started the court proceedings

because he wanted access to the children.

The 37-year-old's application to have contact with four of his children was heard at Derby Crown Court.
...
He regularly met with the first child - named as R - between October 2019 and March 2020, despite signing an agreement prior to donating sperm that he would not have contact.
...
Within the document he did admit to having Fragile X syndrome but there was no explanation of what it meant.

The 25-year-old mother, named as SW, struggled to read and said she did not look at all of the agreement.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61644195

There's a lot more at that link than I can excerpt - I suggest reading it all. Several bad decisions by several people.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. I don't know if you can listen to this outside the UK, but there was a BBC radio documentary series

recently, and it's still available here:

It costs £1000 for a vial of sperm from a licensed sperm bank, and one vial rarely does the job. But is price the only reason people go to the online fertility marketplaces?

For both Erika and Alex, knowing the other genetic half of their biological children is what took them to the internet's sperm donation marketplace. Erika, founder of the parenting connection site Pride Angel, wanted her child to know the donor. She also wanted the rest of the donor's family to be involved. Meanwhile, Alex recently joined Facebook's online donor groups because he wanted to know the people who will be raising his offspring, and maybe get the opportunity to visit every once in a while.

Shadow donor networks have been around for decades - excluded by clinics because of their sexuality, their marital status, or their desire to know the child - people whispered to friends and friends of friends at dinner parties and lecture halls. But with the dawn of the internet, these networks have expanded. Now, to access them, you simply need a web browser and a social media account.

Dr Aleks Krotoski has been tracking these sperm donor groups since 2018, and has seen both the rewards and the risks. Yes, there is the opportunity to meet a donor and the child's future parent, but this is an unregulated market dealing in a regulated material. Compelled to this underground world, the people who offer and receive put themselves and their future children in danger of exploitation and disease.

In this episode, Aleks asks, just because the internet lets us do it, should we?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00120s9

[Zeitghost]

5. Facebook sperm donations

Should have been the first clue.

[Xavier Breath]

9. I guess Costco was all sold out.