Aggregated News
Troubled by the health history and backgrounds of some anonymous egg and sperm donors, leaders in the fertility industry have said in recent weeks that they would create a national registry to track donors and birth outcomes.
In response to a Dec. 9 article in The Times about a child born with a terminal genetic disease, representatives from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, a fertility industry organization, said they intend to record the histories of donors and surrogate mothers to help prevent such tragedies.
The Times article was about a girl from Rancho Mirage, conceived with the help of an anonymous egg donor, who was born with Tay-Sachs. She is nearly 2, and the neurological disease probably will kill her before she turns 5.
The gay couple who chose the donor did not know that she was a carrier of the Tay-Sachs mutation, nor did the donor herself. For a child to get the disease, both biological parents must be Tay-Sachs carriers. One of the men, whose sperm was used to fertilize the donor's egg, also carried the mutation...
In response to a Dec. 9 article in The Times about a child born with a terminal genetic disease, representatives from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, a fertility industry organization, said they intend to record the histories of donors and surrogate mothers to help prevent such tragedies.
The Times article was about a girl from Rancho Mirage, conceived with the help of an anonymous egg donor, who was born with Tay-Sachs. She is nearly 2, and the neurological disease probably will kill her before she turns 5.
The gay couple who chose the donor did not know that she was a carrier of the Tay-Sachs mutation, nor did the donor herself. For a child to get the disease, both biological parents must be Tay-Sachs carriers. One of the men, whose sperm was used to fertilize the donor's egg, also carried the mutation...