Ask Y: Child born from sperm donation traces father on Internet

[Celebration]

http://www.physorg.com/news7809.html

A 15-year-old boy born from anonymously-donated sperm used an online DNA-testing service and the Internet to track down his genetic father, a feat which suggests that promises of donor secrecy are worthless, the British weekly New Scientist reports on Saturday.

The teenager was able to rip through every veil of anonymity by using a DNA test, genealogical records and searches on the Internet, it says.
.................

"With the explosion of information about genetic inheritance, any man who has donated sperm could potentially be found by his biological offspring.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. My DNA isn't on the internet, how can they find me????

[William769]

3. Are you sure about that?

[BlueEyedSon]

4. DOH!

:spray:

[alkaline9]

2. i wonder when child support issues will become a problem? nt

[Canuckistanian]

5. The question here is

Why would anyone consent to have their DNA pattern in a public database?

OR was it done against their wishes?

I suspect the latter.

I hope he tells the kid to get lost. His responsibilty ended when he walked out of the clinic.

[marylanddem]

6. Tells the kid to get lost? Isn't that kind of harsh? n/t

[Canuckistanian]

7. Well, I guess so

But it is his right. This man donated anonymously and expected privacy and discretion.
He got neither.

[CountAllVotes]

9. I know someone that has done this

He is looking for ancestors.

I thought about it myself but it is best if you are male for ID purposes. I decided against it but I have an adopted parent - never did know who this parent was. :( :( :(

You send a sample of your hair or skin I think.

Let me look into this further - I have the website for it.

I'll post it here when I find it.

:kick:

[Duer 157099]

8. Seems to me that legally, the clinic who supplied the sperm

is the "legal" father. The clinic should be responsible for child support. (hah, let's see that happen)

[Duer 157099]

10. Here's the confusing part of the story:

After nine months, he was contacted by two men whose Y chromosomes closely matched his own.

Neither men knew each other, but the similarity between their Y chromosomes suggested there was a 50-percent chance that all three had the same father, grandfather or great-grandfather.

In addition, both men had the same last name, although with different spellings.

Were the two men who contacted him, also searching for their ancestry, and thus were in the databank? Who were they, relative to the boy's father? Or were they also from anonymous sperm, doing the same search? But then why would they have the father's surname, albeit spelled differently.

Poorly written article.

[DBoon]

11. and how did Ann Coulter react when confronted with the 15 year old?

nt

[NNadir]

12. Smart kid.

If I were the dad - and I'm not since I've never engaged in this sort of thing - I'd be intrigued and maybe a little proud of the boy even if I'm not his father in anything but a genetic sense.

I love precocious kids.

[CountAllVotes]

13. Here is the link for DNA testing ...

Costs money of course - as much as $995.00 for the most info. it seems.

Is it worth and do you really want to know?. :shrug:

I'd suggest strongly thinking about this before doing it. :think:

http://www.familytreedna.com/


<< Family Tree DNA provides the tests for this partnership between the National Geographic Society, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation. Click here to learn more about the Genographic Project. >>

<snip>
The value of Family Tree DNA testing is its ability to help find "Genetic Cousins ™" by comparing the results of as few as two people.

Males are able to see if another male is a descendant from their direct paternal line. Our 12 marker Y-DNA test has become the world standard, being adopted by National Geographic's - Genographic Project. Our 37-marker test yields the world's tightest parameters to the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA). You may order the 12 marker test and return to "refine" your test at a later time without the need to re-submit another DNA sample!

Women can determine which Haplogroup they are part of based upon the descent through their maternal line. Reports are compared to the Cambridge Reference Sequence, which show your deviation from this industry standard. We identify the lettered Haplogroup that your mtDNA is assigned to by the scientific community.

<snip>


:kick: