Here’s an interesting article in The New York Times, about children born of donor sperm donors who want to seek their “biological fathers” (and sometimes, vice versa). An interesting topic that eerily parallels many of the issues of adoption as well. The urge to know where one came from is, it seems, universal.
The big question is, will the advances of assisted reproductive technology (ART) such as sperm and egg donation move too quickly for the ensuing moral questions? I had a few chums in college who donated sperm for the “extra bucks.” They are all obviously smart, college educated people, but I don’t think long-term considerations of their progeny, real living people with their own lives, were foremost on their minds when they sat in the little room with the cup and the Hustlers…in fact I don’t think they gave it too much more thought than some of my scruffier friends who donated their plasma for similar reasons (i.e., cash).
Speaking of, while it seems commonplace for people to turn to assisted reproductive technology (ART), this brave new world is not particularly old. The first test-tube baby was born in the United States in December 1981, when I was a junior in high school; thus ART has been around about as long as I’ve been (hopefully still) fertile.
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