Autistic Sperm Donor

spidergoat

spidergoat

Valued Senior Member
Consider someone on the autistic spectrum (Aspergers Syndrome) who describes how he donates sperm to a sperm bank, but does not disclose he is autistic because he wants his genes to be passed on, and he believes they would reject him if he were honest about it. He doesn't think of autism as a disorder but as a normal variation which he wants to propagate. On the form they ask about mental illnesses, but he's aware that autism is not a mental illness, and so takes this literally as reason not to disclose.

Is this ethical? Illegal? A breach of contract law? Or not a problem?
 
For illegality you'll have to check the local laws.
Ethicality, well, i can't say it is ethical, but people lie a lot, i 've heard numbers of 10 lies daily(lying in the broadest sense of the word)
There 's something to be said for just being honest as well, as it improves the chance of getting a parent who actually knows how to deal with an autistic kid.
 
spidergoat said:
Is this ethical? Illegal? A breach of contract law? Or not a problem?
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Is autism a hereditary condition? I know several autistic people and all of their parents and siblings are normal.

As for your friend, as you pointed out, he didn't lie to anyone so it's certainly neither a breach of contract nor a criminal act.

I don't know if Stephen Hawking has ever gone to a sperm bank, but I'm sure women would be fighting over his seed.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
Is autism a hereditary condition? I know several autistic people and all of their parents and siblings are normal.

As for your friend, as you pointed out, he didn't lie to anyone so it's certainly neither a breach of contract nor a criminal act.

I don't know if Stephen Hawking has ever gone to a sperm bank, but I'm sure women would be fighting over his seed.
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Yes, it's hereditary. But the results are not always certain. He is lying in a sense, since he's withholding something that I'm sure the woman would want to know. It may not be a mental illness, but autism does have potential negative consequences for children.

In the case of Stephen Hawking, his condition is known. I think there might be women who want autistic children, obviously autistic people have spouses and children naturally all the time.
 
spidergoat said:
Consider someone on the autistic spectrum (Aspergers Syndrome) who describes how he donates sperm to a sperm bank, but does not disclose he is autistic because he wants his genes to be passed on, and he believes they would reject him if he were honest about it. He doesn't think of autism as a disorder but as a normal variation which he wants to propagate. On the form they ask about mental illnesses, but he's aware that autism is not a mental illness, and so takes this literally as reason not to disclose.

Is this ethical? Illegal? A breach of contract law? Or not a problem?
Click to expand...

It's a tricky one.

The wording on the questionnaire, if taken literally, would mean that he is correct, that autism is not a mental illness. Legally, it would be a difficult case. Because it is not a mental illness and it would depend on whether there are other questions or disclosure options that would or could apply to autism or AS.

Ethically. The right thing to do would be to disclose it. However, he is correct, some women may not select his sperm as a result. However, that should be their choice. His trying to circumvent this by omitting his AS on the medical disclosure forms is not what I would consider ethical. I don't understand the need to propagate, so much so that one is willing to lie about something like this in a bid to propagate, so this seems like an impossible scenario.

At the end of the day, he should be completely honest and let the woman decide what she wants. He most probably has other qualities that would make the risk of possible AS a non-issue. While he is not lying, his actions are still dishonest.
 
Is the same as women going to spermbank and having no man and getting pregnant. The whole natural selection of men choosing women based on her beauty or intellect is overthrown by the ambitions of a selfish individual.
 
spidergoat said:
Consider someone on the autistic spectrum (Aspergers Syndrome) who describes how he donates sperm to a sperm bank, but does not disclose he is autistic because he wants his genes to be passed on, and he believes they would reject him if he were honest about it. He doesn't think of autism as a disorder but as a normal variation which he wants to propagate. On the form they ask about mental illnesses, but he's aware that autism is not a mental illness, and so takes this literally as reason not to disclose.

Is this ethical? Illegal? A breach of contract law? Or not a problem?
Click to expand...

Ethically:
It's a mixed dilemma, on the one hand you have someone pointing out the "Eugenic" nature of people cherry picking the right samples for their offspring, however there is the point that people when they have children naturally tend to have the capacity to pick a partner they want to be with and don't just have sex with anything that moves to get impregnated. So in some respects for a woman to be impregnated with a sample that was dishonestly labelled it might be seen as severe a breach as rape by the woman at least.

Legally:
If a kid grew up to have a related spectrum disorder, the mother would likely sue the bank company for damages, who in turn would then likely look for damages from the donor because of their lack of honesty, however most of the legal discourse needs to take into consideration the indemnity of the contract and how it's written for both the mother and the donor.

As for Autism:
There is the potential for conditions to be passed on Genetically, however there is also a whole host of toxicological effects that can alter a persons genetics after birth that can generate conditions.

It's the old argument of Nature versus Nurture, If a child is brought up in a household with people that heavily smoke, they will likely suffer from ADHD like conditions due the nature of how Nicotine can cause anxiety in people that can't have continued dosages, if subjected to such conditions for a long time the negative effects are greatly enhanced. Even the most perfect of genetic samples in this instance could be spoiled.
 
I will never be adding to the population. I do not see how or why anyone would want to do what op says.
 
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