ANONYMOUS SPERM DONOR PASSED ON DEADLY MUTATION
Somewhere in the US is a sperm donor who has passed a deadly gene to five children born to four couples. Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Dr Lawrence A. Boxer, of the University of Michigan, said that he had been consulted by the parents of a child with an extremely rare disease of the blood, severe congenital neutropenia, which is often fatal for children who are not treated. Daily shots of a drug costing US$200 a day are required to keep them in good health. Soon he found that he was treating five IVF children from the same sperm donor.
The sperm bank was unable to provide any information about the donor, but Dr Boxer suspects that he had an unusual condition, mosaicism, in which the mutant gene was carried only in the sperm and not in the rest of the body. Otherwise he would have been a very sick man — and the sperm bank assured the researchers that he was healthy. No one knows how many other children have been fathered by the man.
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
A first in France: a trans mum and a trans dad
Trigger warning: if you are easily confused by gender pronouns, this story from France may cause heart palpitations. February 19...
Nigerian power couple convicted in London over organ trafficking plot
In May last year, a young Nigerian man stumbled into a police station into the English town of Staines, in...
Cease and desist: Dutch sperm donor who has fathered 550 children is being sued
A Dutch woman and a foundation for children of sperm donors are suing a Dutch man for fathering too many...
Should intractable mental illness make you eligible for euthanasia?
Canada is in the middle of a vigorous debate about whether incurable mental illness is grounds for Medical Assistance in...
Belgium to permit multiple gender ID changes
Belgium will permit people to change their gender identity as often as they want. The Minister of Justice, Vincent Van...
Nature’s foray into politics may have backfired
In the 2020 election, a swag of high-profile science journals, including Nature, Science, The Lancet, and the New England Journal...