Recently, a sperm bank has been sued by a teenager conceived with sperm from that bank. She has a genetic disorder that came from the donor, and is arguing that the DNA received from her father is faulty and the sperm bank is liable.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429596840
I can see her side of the case, but don't agree with it at all. Sure, she has a genetic disorder from her father's DNA, but she also exists because of her father's DNA. I interpret the lawsuit as the teen and her mother saying "I'd rather not have been born than have this disorder", since she couldn't have one without the other. Anyway, I'm interested to hear what all you doctors and lawyers think about it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wow. What a crazy statement. I wonder how the actual suit will pan out.
Fragile X is one of the cheaper things to screen for (you can actually often see the abnormal chromosome on one of those chromosomal micrographs where they match up the pairs). I would have thought that they would have check donors for that, since it is one of the most common causes of mental retardation in the world.
I would say, though, that we all have lots of problem genes. And with sperm and eggs, you get bundled sets. You can't pick and choose this gene from one parent but not this other gene, a la GATTACA. Also, I feel like there is reasonable doubt that the sperm bank could have even picked this up. Fragile X is caused by a triple repeat expansion, like Huntington's. There is a spectrum of lengths of the gene from normal to carrier to abnormal (affected). If a male came in and was unaffected himself, further expansion would have to occur while he was making his sperm. So he was probably on the borderline but without disease, and some of his sperm were pushed over the edge and some weren't. We also generally think of this disorder as milder in females than males (because they have a second X which is probably normal). Complicated stuff.
Peter, you're so smart...
...no, really, you are.
Post a Comment