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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-not-like-you-thought dept.

There are many reasons to avoid the plethora of direct-to-consumer DNA tests on the market these days. Recent data suggests that many may produce alarming false positives for disease risks, while others that claim to predict things like athletic abilities and wine preferences are simply dubious. Another, perhaps less-common concern is that an at-home genetic analysis may unveil completely unexpected, deeply disturbing information that you just can’t prepare for.

That was the case for Washington state’s Kelli Rowlette (née Fowler), who took a DNA test with the popular site Ancestry.com back in July 2017.

Rowlette was likely expecting to discover new details about her distant ancestors, but she instead learned that her DNA sample matched that of a doctor in Idaho. The Ancestry.com analysis predicted a “parent-child” relationship. Befuddled and in disbelief, Rowlette relayed the findings to her parents, Sally Ashby and Howard Fowler. According to a lawsuit the family filed in the US District Court of Idaho, she told her parents she was disappointed that the results were so unreliable.

But little did she know that her parents—who previously lived in Idaho—had trouble conceiving her and, in 1980, underwent an unusual fertility procedure with a doctor near their Idaho Falls home. The name of that doctor was Gerald E. Mortimer—who happened to have a DNA sample with Ancestry.com that matched Rowlette’s.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:43PM (19 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:43PM (#663178)

    had trouble conceiving her and, in 1980, underwent an unusual fertility procedure with a doctor near their Idaho Falls home.

    So the real father had lame tadpoles, but the doc couldn't tell them that because they'd cancel their visits, so he improvised.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:45PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:45PM (#663181)

    Correction: "legal father", not "real father".

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Friday April 06 2018, @06:30AM (1 child)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday April 06 2018, @06:30AM (#663296) Journal

      Correction: "legal father", not "real biological father".

      Who are you to decide what is the real father?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:51PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:51PM (#663185)

    Most likely scenario is the parents made an arrangement with the doctor and kept the secret from their daughter. Daughter's duty now is clear: to piss on her parent's graves.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Friday April 06 2018, @12:06AM

      by looorg (578) on Friday April 06 2018, @12:06AM (#663193)

      If she is hanging out on Ancestry.com to find out more about her family I guess she succeeded, now she'll have a lot more work. Shouldn't she be pleased?
      Also without the doctors extra "work" I guess she wouldn't be alive, so we could also just call her an ungrateful bastard? But then that isn't as financially attractive as a lawsuit.

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 06 2018, @12:55AM (1 child)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday April 06 2018, @12:55AM (#663212) Homepage Journal

      Folks on this Site don't read the articles, they only look at the pictures. And the picture on this one is not great. But the article says all 3 parents are alive.

      • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @02:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @02:22AM (#663232)

        For now.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by JNCF on Friday April 06 2018, @12:03AM (11 children)

    by JNCF (4317) on Friday April 06 2018, @12:03AM (#663191) Journal

    The parents knew that donor sperm was used, but not that it was from the doctor. From TFA:

    Ashby was diagnosed with a tipped uterus while Fowler was said to have a low sperm count and low sperm mobility. The couple agreed to a fertility procedure in which Mortimer said he would mix Fowler’s sperm with donor sperm in an 85-percent to 15-percent ratio. The doctor would then use that mixture to inseminate Ashby, which he did in multiple procedures in June, July, and August of 1980.

    Ashby and Fowler agreed to that plan, thinking that the donor sperm used would be from an anonymous donor that met their exact specifications. They wanted the sperm to be from a college student who resembled Fowler. Specifically, he would have brown hair, blue eyes, and be over six feet tall. Mortimer assured the couple that the donor sperm was from just such an anonymous match.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 06 2018, @02:46AM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 06 2018, @02:46AM (#663249) Journal

      I'm having problems empathizing with the mother and the legal father. Unless the daughter is somehow faulty, or defective, then they got what they paid for. The not-quite-anonymous donor was a college grad. At least superficially, he resembled the father - two legs, two eyes, etc. The doctor's choice of donors seems a little unethical, but, where is the illegality?

      Had the doctor used a knock-out drug, and deposited the sperm in a more traditional fashion, then we would be considering rape. But, that isn't what happened here.

      Ehhhh - just can't get excited over this case.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by JNCF on Friday April 06 2018, @03:29AM (2 children)

        by JNCF (4317) on Friday April 06 2018, @03:29AM (#663254) Journal

        College student, and they were allegedly promised more of a resemblance than two arms and two legs. But you know that, old troll. I have trouble empathizing with the parents' decision to keep the sperm donation a secret so long, but I suspect there was a lot of ego wrapped up in fatherhood and that 15% sperm input was some way of holding out hope. I have no idea what that's like, but I still think you'd have to tell the kid at some point. It's such a big lie, and it has potential implications for genetic health; good thing she got herself tested.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @06:02PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @06:02PM (#663495)

          I suspect there was a lot of ego wrapped up in fatherhood

          Why do you assume it is an ego issue? How do you even bring that topic up?

          • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday April 06 2018, @06:52PM

            by JNCF (4317) on Friday April 06 2018, @06:52PM (#663516) Journal

            I can't cite you any studies linking ego to fatherhood, it's just something I've anecdotally noticed in men. I actually hesitated to bring it up, but I was trying to be recognise the sensitivity of situation that the parents are in given that I was being critical of their decision to lie to their grown child about her biological ancestry. Another obvious factor is that the knowledge could somehow damage her emotional bond to the legal father, but if I was in that guy's shoes I'd be questioning to what degree this factor was a rationalization for the ego thing (which you probably still disagree with as even being a factor, and I haven't made a strong argument for).

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 06 2018, @07:14AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 06 2018, @07:14AM (#663312) Journal

        The doctor's choice of donors seems a little unethical, but, where is the illegality?

        Fraud. Or perhaps, civil lawsuit for bad faith in the contract. Let us also keep in mind that there's a good chance that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The good doctor may well have a number of children formed in this way.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @10:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @10:35PM (#663568)

        I suppose you could pay for a prostitute for a night you won't soon forget. Then she could have a thug come in and beat the shit out of your retarded ass with a large pipe wrench, and you couldn't argue that you didn't get what you paid for either, right?

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Friday April 06 2018, @05:54AM (4 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday April 06 2018, @05:54AM (#663283) Homepage
      > mix Fowler’s sperm with donor sperm in an 85-percent to 15-percent ratio

      Is this some kind of homeopathy (without the repeated dilution)? Will the low-motility sperm be influenced - get all psyched up - by the presence of the higher motility sperm, and even remember that boost as they barge up the uterus? My personal conclusion would be that the less fit sperm has an even lower chance of winning the race when fit sperm is introduced into the mix.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @07:30AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @07:30AM (#663314)

        Probably a psychological trick for the father. "There's a chance the child is biologically mine", to try and preempt feelings of jealousy, and psychological barriers between father and child. He can't yell in anger "you're not really my child anyway", at best he can pull a "there's an 85+% chance you're not really my child", which somehow loses the punch.

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday April 06 2018, @02:50PM (1 child)

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday April 06 2018, @02:50PM (#663436) Homepage
          I arrive at the same conclusion. It's all "there's a chance" until the wave function's collapsed. Unfortunately it's so damn easy to find out the true paternity, it really wasn't that much of a puzzle.

          A coin is tossed, but not revealed - what's the probability that it's heads? Half? Nope, it's either one or zero, depending on whether it's heads up or not! This argument tends to get lots of people's knickers in a twist, which is good, as it's deliberately paradoxical.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:56AM

            by darkfeline (1030) on Saturday April 07 2018, @03:56AM (#663660) Homepage

            You screwed up your analogy there. The probability is half, until it is measured, then the wave function collapses. Yes, even thought the coin has already been flipped and "technically" isn't oscillating on the table.

            This is literally the entire point of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.

            --
            Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday April 06 2018, @02:33PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 06 2018, @02:33PM (#663429)

        More than just genetic code in the ... zip file or whatever analogy. In 1980 its pretty ridiculous as a technique but In 15000 BC if one guy had weird pH or something then playing dilution games might ironically increase the odds of the guy having his genetic material reproduce (say the pH is so high there's a 100% chance of infertility if only he squirts in there, but multiple guys would "fix" the pH, now resulting in lowered the odds of infertility, even if there's 80% chance or whatever its the other dude's kid, 20% is much higher than 0%). In 15000 BC its orgy time but you'd think in 1980 there would be some kind of pharmacy bottle with pH buffers and nutrients and whatnot rather than mixing with his own stuff.